
Class JB&i^lix 
Copyright^? 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




K. A. YOUNG. 



REMINISCENCES 



BY R. A. YOUNG 



Nashville, Tenn. ; Dallas, Tex. 

Publishing House Methodist Episcopal Church, South 

Barbee & Smith, Agents 

1900 



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THE I..I8KA-Y Of 

CONGRESS 
Two Co^iw Ktct»v€0 

JUL, 27 190< 

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CLASSjA/ XXc. N*. 
COPY 3. 



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2>eDication* 

TO THE GRANDCHILDREN 

ANNA HUNTER 

AND 

ROBERTA YOUNG KIRKPATRICK 

THIS BOOK IS MOST 

AFFECTIONA TEL Y 

DEDICA TED. 



REMINISCENCES. 



I. 

Ox last Monday I reached the middle of 
my superfluous decade, Psalm xc. 10. Since 
then I have been asked over and over again 
to write some sketches from memory. One 
objection presents itself: my aversion to 
egotism is so great that I do not know how 
I shall manage the columnar "I." I sup- 
pose I had better imitate Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, and say to the reader: "Look out 
for it." 

If I had a blackboard and three pieces of 
chalk, I could draw you a picture of the 
union schoolhouse two miles west of Camp- 
bell's Station, in East Tennessee. It was 
actually built of hewed logs, with the cracks 
daubed and limed. It had a brick chimney 
at each end, and was covered with twenty- 
seven inch boards. There was nothing 
equal to it in all the surrounding country. 

The Leas and Mabrys and Bells and Mar- 

(7) 



8 REMINISCENCES. 

tins, et id omne genus, were able to have a 
better schoolhouse than other people. 

Each year brought a new man to the chair. 
He was the itinerant country schoolmaster, 
a gentleman who could read, write, and ci- 
pher beyond the single rule of three. Of 
Olney's geography and Murray's English 
grammar he knew precisely nothing; and if 
you had told him that away back in the his- 
tory of the world all Gaul was divided into 
three parts, or that a man named Adherbal 
had some complaints against Jugurtha, he 
would have wondered where you got your 
information. Finally the Leas and Mabrys 
went off to the University of Knoxville, and 
the Bells and Martins and Youngs journeyed 
to Washington College. 

In 1780 the first school in the Mississippi 
Valley was established at Salem, in Wash- 
ington County, by Samuel Doak, D.D. In 
1783 this school was incorporated as Martin 
Academy by the Legislature of North Caro- 
lina. In 1795 it received its present name, 
Washington College, and sent out its first 
graduate. It is said that Dr. Doak de- 



REMINISCENCES. 9 

clined the presidency of Princeton before 
coming out to the Watauga settlement. 
He was succeeded in the presidency by his 
son, John Whitfield Doak, D.D., and in the 
lapse of time a grandson came to the head 
of the institution, Archibald Alexander 
Doak, D.D. This gentleman was the first 
real scholar I ever saw. He had all the ad- 
vantages our country could afford, at Wash- 
ington, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. If I 
were an artist, I should want the genius and 
brush of Titian to represent his scholarly 
appearance. I am tempted to borrow from 
Sir Richard Steele, and say that to know him 
for four years was a liberal education. He 
taught the ancient languages and preached 
for us on Sunday mornings. 

The members of our faculty were all grad- 
uates of Princeton or Edinburgh — all Cal- 
vinists of the bluest type. This doctrine ex- 
actly suited our Scotch-Irish neighborhood. 
They could all sing Watts and Rippon with 
the finest nasal twang, and talk "Charnock 
on the Attributes" to perfection. They 
seemed to delight in the contemplation of the 



10 REMINISCENCES. 

sovereignty, justice, and wrath of God. I 
soon grew weary of all this, and went out 
to a little country meetinghouse and cast 
in my lot with the people called Methodists. 
There we sang the Wesleyan hymns and 
talked of goodness, mercy, and grace. 

In the year 1895 Washington College cel- 
ebrated its one hundredth anniversary. To 
my great surprise, they invited me to deliv- 
er the centennial address. I had left those 
ample grounds just fifty years ago, but there 
were half a dozen people present whom I had 
seen before. About five hundred modern 
Presbyterians listened to the speech. Toward 
the close I enumerated all the religious serv- 
ices held by their forefathers, beginning 
with daily morning prayers at five o'clock 
and ending with two long manuscript ser- 
mons on Sunday morning before dinner. I 
infer that they rather enjoyed it, for the next 
morning the trustees conferred on me anoth- 
er degree. 

In 1843 Dr. Daniel Baker, of Washing- 
ton City, came to see us, and preached his 
twenty-two revival sermons. He was the 



REMINISCENCES. H 

first preacher of national reputation the stu- 
dents had heard. After the first day the ex- 
citement became so great that the regular 
college exercises were suspended. His pulpit 
became a throne of power. I was so com- 
pletety captured that I followed him over to 
Leesburg and heard the same series of ser- 
mons the second time. After the eloquent 
Doctor died they were published in a hand- 
some volume. Since then I have heard 
them repeated occasionally from Baptist and 
Methodist pulpits. Some men know a good 
thing when they see it. 

I close by giving hearty thanks to thirty- 
six near relatives who came in during the 
evening of January 23, 1899. Their ages 
ranged from three years to threescore and 
ten. 



II. 

I have always believed in Jesus Christ 
and offered prayers unto the Father of all in 
his name. I have never seen one day when 
I objected to his precepts or any of his 
instructions. I accept every sentence in 
the Apostles' Creed. I hope the Church 
w r ill never add another word to it. St. Au- 
gustine had not lived when some ancient 
stylus put down the final stop. Notice how 
it closes, and then see if you quite under- 
stand me. You will find it in our baptismal 
service. But I did not make a public pro- 
fession of religion and unite with the Church 
until I was full seventeen years old. What 
caused the delay? Calvinism — nothing else. 
I encountered it in my seventh year. Aunt 
Jane Temple taught our class in the Sunday 
school. And forasmuch as there was no 
" Sunday school literature' 1 (eo nomine) in 
those days, we read the New Testament and 
recited the Shorter Catechism. She rather 

gave preference to the Catechism, because 

(12) 



REMINISCENCES. ± 



q 



she believed it to be a perfect and lucid ex- 
planation of the doctrines of grace. In due 
time came the Confession of Faith. Moloch 
help us! I believe it is Swedenborg who 
somewhere describes seeing John Calvin in 
heaven. He was sitting in a dark grotto 
meditating on the decrees of Grod. May he 
never visit our world again! 

When I saw those lonely chambers con- 
nected with Westminster Abbey, where it is 
said the Confession and the Catechisms were 
devised and formulated, and when I wor- 
shiped in Calvin's own church at Geneva, 
and saw the gloomy house where he lived, 
all these sad youthful experiences passed 
before me. The sermon we heard was in 
the French language, the native tongue of 
Calvin. 

If I could find a journal kept in 1840, it 
would read very much on this wise: "Old 
Pleasant Forest Church, near Campbell's 
Station, founded 1796, by Missionary Balch. 
First Sunday in January, heard Rev. Andrew 
Vance on the sovereignty of God. Spent 
the afternoon reading Baxter's 'Call to the 



14 REMINISCENCES. 

Unconverted/ Second Sunday, heard Mr. 
Vance on the omnipotence of God. Read 
Doddridge's ' Rise and Progress of Religion 
in the Soul ' in the afternoon and at night. 
Third Sunday, heard Mr. Vance on the jus- 
tice of God. Read Law's ' Serious Call ' in 
the evening. Fourth Sunday , heard our pas- 
tor again, one hour and a half, on the joys 
of the elect. In the evening read Baxter's 
' Saint's Everlasting Rest.' During this 
time I was present when the dear old man 
made a pastoral visit to one of his dying 
members. He seated himself by her bed- 
side, and drew forth from his side pocket a 
well-worn ' yellow plush paper,' and dis- 
coursed to the old lady on the perfect safety 
of God's elect." 

All the gospel— I mean the preaching — I 
heard from our professors at Washington 
was in the same scholastic and doctrinal 
style. That was a memorable day when Dr. 
Doak delivered his sermon on John iii. 
16. "When he came to the second clause, 
" that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life," he 



REMINISCENCES. 15 

expended the full force of bis learning, 
logic, and eloquence to prove that none but 
the elect would believe. The Methodists 
decided that the sermon must be answered. 
Rev. Elbert F. Sevier was selected as the 
champion of Arminianism. He came over 
to Earnest's Chapel, one mile from the col- 
lege, and was greeted by a vast audience. 
His text was John iii. 16. When he came 
to the words " whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life," 
he proved that it is a universal affirmative 
proposition, sustained by the whole New 
Testament. Sevier was at his best. A war 
horse curveting upon a meadow was never 
in better trim. That day I bade a final adieu 
to Calvinism. 

Rev. Elbert P. Sevier was a direct de- 
scendant of the old governor of Tennessee. 
He was one of the few college-bred men in 
the Methodist ministry of those days — a 
man of wealth and distinction far above the 
ordinary. I am indebted to him beyond 
anything I am able to state in this reminis- 
cence. "When he was old and lived in such 



16 REMINISCENCES. 

elegant style, there was no hotel in Knox- 
ville for me if Sevier knew I was there. 

The Reformed Churches of Switzerland 
and Holland and the Presbyterians of Scot- 
land and ^sTorth America can present to the 
historian and the philosopher a membership 
as intelligent and devout as the human race 
has ever produced. Can any one inform me 
how such a doctrine as their Confessions 
teach can be held by such a people? I once 
put this question to Rev. Dr. Anderson, of 
St. Louis. He confessed he was unable to 
explain. And I never expect to spend a 
few years among a nobler people than those 
around Washington College. 

The tuition fee at our best country school 
fifty years ago was ten dollars a year. At 
Washington we paid thirty dollars for ten 
months. Board was eight dollars a month — 
not quite as much as my street car fare at 
present. 



III. 

Maxy of the young men of the Holston 
Conference began to " exercise in public ' : 
at Lenoir's camp ground. You will find 
the place at the eastern edge of Roane Coun- 
ty, on Muddy Creek. It was fortunate for 
this primitive place of worship that at the 
opening of the nineteenth century every in- 
fluential man in the neighborhood built a 
tent, notably William B. Lenoir, Esq. He 
was a native of North Carolina and a grad- 
uate of Chapel Hill. Though often solicited 
and " called out," he had not the slightest 
inclination to public life. His time and tal- 
ents and energy were all devoted to the man- 
agement of the largest estate in East Ten- 
nessee. Emerson says: "A gentleman is 
quiet, a lady is serene." He must have 
known Squire Lenoir and his wife. 

I will venture to name his sons in the fol- 
lowing order : Albert, William, Thomas, 
Avery, Frank, Ballard, and Israel. Each 

one of these was trained and graduated at 
2 (17) 



18 REMINISCENCES. 

some university or college, not with a view 
to professional life or to politics, but that he 
might become an intelligent citizen. Why 
not? I suppose that it is not absolutely 
necessary for a young man of wealth to re- 
main an ignoramus. One of these young 
Lenoirs did stray off for a little while into 
politics, and another took on a medical 
course in Philadelphia. Besides this family, 
the Wintins and Grants, the Praters and 
Powells, all had camps at "Old Muddy 
Creek." Their sons and daughters went 
forward for prayers, and in due time were 
happily converted and brought into the 
Church. No traveling evangelist ever stood 
before them and shouted: u Now, all you 
that want to be religious, hold up your 
hands;" or, "all that want to lead a better 
life send in your cards." Notice, I am not 
presuming to say which is the better " meth- 
od." But if you insist on a hint, you are re- 
ferted to Acts x. 44; xi. 15. 

"When I was pastor of his family Bishop 
Soule never tired relating to me his expe- 
rience and practice in New England before 



REMINISCENCES. 19 

the year 1806. He rode around his large 
circuit or district, preached every day, con- 
fidently expecting the Holy Ghost to fall 
upon the people, and was rarely disappoint- 
ed. Then and there he held class meeting 
and received members on probation. He 
never saw a protracted meeting until that 
memorable one in Green Street Church, 
New York, 1806. 

Brother Rufus M. Stephens w r as our preach- 
er in charge once or twice. He was homely 
and slovenly, but never failed to reach his 
appointments and treat his auditors to some 
of the wildest sallies of eloquence that ever 
reached human ears. Orator nascitur non 
fit. If he were stationed in jNashville now, 
he would visit the Publishing House every 
morning. I should like to see the Agents 
or Connectional officers escape him by u mov- 
ing up." He would find them. He wanted 
nothing but listeners. We are indebted to 
Hudson for a character whose " soul ran 
dry through a leak at his mouth." 

Kev. Timothy Sullens occasionally left his 
fine pulpit in Knoxville and came down to 



20 REMINISCENCES. 

Muddy Creek. He was young, handsome, 
grand, exceedingly fond of English broad- 
cloth and velvet. He sought no knowledge 
outside of Arminian theology, but he could 
preach that with captivating eloquence and 
tremendous power. He delighted in long, 
strong sweeps through the realms of imagi- 
nation and fancy. A more consecrated man 
I have not known. 

Perhaps in some far future land 
We yet may meet, we yet may dwell. 

Dr. Thomas Stringfield frequently came to 
see us. He was every inch a Kentuckian, 
tall and straight as an arrow. He enjoyed a 
connectional reputation. He had filled the 
country with religious tracts and controver- 
sial pamphlets, "manifold and thick as 
leaves in Yallambrosa," and had edited the 
Christian Advocate four years. His preach- 
ing was clear and instructive to the last de- 
gree. ISTothing could exceed his hospital- 
ity at his ample estate and in his delightful 
home near Strawberry Plains. His daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Butler, is known to every intelli- 



REMINISCENCES. 21 

gent woman in Southern Methodism. His 
granddaughter, Miss Butler, spent several 
years of student life at Belmont College. 
She has a genius for music. Some people 
know where to educate their children. 

When I am traveling eastward the rail- 
road from Chattanooga to Bristol runs di- 
rectly through the neighborhood I have been 
describing. From Lenoir Station to Con- 
cord is the charmed spot, the enchanted 
ground. I sit on the left-hand side of the 
car and keep silent. To me every inch has 
its luster, and every moldering stone is a 
chronicle. A few years ago I got off at the 
way station where the Wintins once lived. 
Here I hired a horse and rode three miles 
northward, to old Poplar Grove plantation, 
where my father's children were all born and 
reared. There stood the old house yet, but 
a new one had been erected by the prosper- 
ous Dutchman who owned the place. I rode 
immediately to the family graveyard, and sat 
for hours. After awhile the old farmer came 
to learn something of the stranger. I point- 
ed to the tombstone of the longest grave 



22 REMINISCENCES. 

and read: " Sacred to the memory of Captain 
John Calvin Young." 

" Carrying coals to ^Newcastle," so Editor 
Lyons thinks while I am telling him about 
the Lenoir settlement and neighborhood. 
His wife was a daughter of Albert Lenoir. 



IV. 

Brushy Creek Camp Ground was not 
many miles east of Jonesboro. Rev. "W. G. 
Brownlow was a tent holder there. His hos- 
pitality knew no bounds until the last vis- 
itor was fed and cared for. At the begin- 
ning of the camp meeting he gave us one 
or two sermons, so called. They were loud, 
rough animadversions, with a text at the 
top. So it seemed to us then; but com- 
pared to some harangues we have heard at 
the Tabernacle in cultivated Nashville, they 
were models of homiletics. We have learned 
at last what the masses want and enjoy. 

When Brownlow used to come down to the 
college to make us a Whig speech I always 
managed to entertain him at my room. 
When I happened to be in Jonesboro he in- 
vited me to his home. If any one asked 
him at table or in the presence of his family 
about the latest religious or political sensa- 
tion, he invariably replied : " See the next 

issue of the Jonesboro Whig." His wife was 

(23) 



24 REMINISCENCES. 

a model of gentleness and intelligence,- and 
his children were quiet, obedient, and stu- 
dious. Family prayers were attended morn- 
ing and evening with noticeable regularity. 
And this is that same Brownlow who after- 
wards became Governor of Tennessee and 
died a member of the United States Senate. 
Most of the books in the library where I am 
now writing w T ere rescued by him from the 
Federal authorities because the blank pages 
bore my name. 

It would be difficult to write much about 
Brushy Creek Camp Ground without bring- 
ing in the Taylor family. They were the 
most prominent people in Upper East Ten- 
nessee. 

Gen. James P. Taylor built the first brick 
house in Carter County outside of Eliza- 
beth ton. In the year 1816 there came in 
upon them a scholarly youth named Young, 
fresh from Orange County, IN". C. They 
honored him, or dishonored him, with a coun- 
try dance. Among the maidens w 7 ho were 
invited was Lucinda Hyder, daughter of a 
Dutch farmer close by. They u tripped the 



REMINISCENCES. 25 

light fantastic toe ' until the awfully late 
hour of 10 p.m. The Carolina boy and the 
Tennessee girl saw each other frequently 
after this. In due time they were married. 
They baptized four of us. I am the young- 
est, and the only one remaining. 

The General's oldest son was Nathaniel 
G. Taylor. He graduated at Washington, 
and afterwards entered the theological semi- 
nary at Princeton, under Dr. Archibald Al- 
exander, * lux mundi. Calvinism was too 
strong for him; he threw it up. He could 
not believe that the "reprobates" will suffer 
forever in order to manifest either the jus- 
tice or the glory of God. So he came home, 
joined the Methodist Church, and began to 
"hold forth the word of life" at Brushy 
Creek. For several years he remained an 
unordained local preacher. It was during 
this time that he represented his district 
more than once in the United States Con- 
gress. He married a distant relative of 
mine. On his bridal tour he spent some 
time at our home in Lower East Tennessee. 

Hon. N. G. Taylor has two sons, A. A. 



26 REMINISCENCES. 

Taylor and Robert L. Taylor. Both are 
lawyers and invincible politicians. Both 
have been in Congress, and "Our Bob" has 
been Governor of Tennessee three full terms. 
In ]STashville we call him the "apostle of 
sunshine.'' I hope to sign a diploma for 
each of his three daughters. Taken one 
after another, the Taylor family has made 
twenty -eight canvasses for high places. 
They have succeeded in fourteen, all within 
fifty years. 

Dr. Charles Collins, President of Emory 
and Henry College, visited this popular 
camp ground occasionally. The people never 
tired of saying that Dr. Wilbur Fisk select- 
ed him from among all the graduates of the 
Wesleyan University as the most suitable 
person to inaugurate the new college enter- 
prise in Western Virginia. His personal 
appearance and dress and manner were those 
of a cultivated Eastern gentleman. His ser- 
mons were scholarly and orthodox. After 
several years he was called to the presidency 
of Dickinson College, in Pennsylvania. Fi- 
nallv he closed out as President of the State 



REMINISCENCES. 27 

Female College, Memphis, Term. They 
said that he was fond of money. Strange 
that he did not accumulate a fortune, but 
lived in moderate circumstances all his days. 
It may be that it required some money to rear 
and educate a family. 

Dr. E. E. Wiley came also. He was young, 
handsome, fluent; and when he preached we 
were all filled with a holy influence. Eight 
or ten General Conferences opened and ad- 
journed, but no connectional position was 
ever offered Dr. Wiley. How rich we are in 
men! 

About this time I lived several months in 
Dr. Brabson's office at Rheatown, reading 
Wistar's anatomy, Dungieson's physiology, 
and sundry other enormous books. I was 
attracted to medicine then for the same rea- 
son that I like geology now. I have always 
felt an interest in the planet and the man 
that lives on it. About the time my old 
preceptor began to risk me out among his 
patients on wet days and cold nights Rev. 
Creed Fulton persuaded me to take charge of 
Rogers ville Circuit, a small scope of country 



28 REMINISCENCES. 

with twenty-eight regular preaching places. 
This was fifty-four years ago. I venture to 
call Dr. Palmore's attention to the fact that 
since then preaching the gospel has been my 
vocation, and that while making a tour of 
the Russian Empire in 1891 it did not occur 
to me that I was a farmer, although I am un- 
fortunate enough to own two small planta- 
tions in Arkansas. Indeed, my Russian 
guide and interpreter seemed to manifest an 
unusual interest in the fact that he was con- 
ducting a Protestant minister from North 
America. 



Y. 

During the seven months on Rogersville 
Circuit I learned the truth and value of that 
oft-quoted saying of Dr. Chalmers: "If you 
want to get into a man's heart, go into his 
house." Rich or poor, he expects a pastoral 
visit. Many years afterwards, at First 
Church, St. Louis, and at McKendree 
Church, Nashville, I had no occasion to 
alter this opinion. 

At the western appointment on the cir- 
cuit there lived a scion of one of our most 
distinguished families in the early history of 
Tennessee. Mr. Cocke was the son of Wil- 
liam Cocke, one of our first Senators in the 
United States Congress (1796), and the fa- 
ther of John Cocke, Esq., and Col. William 
M. Cocke, who died a few years ago in 
Nashville. John had been a classmate of 
mine over at the college, so whenever I 
came to this appointment he took charge of 

me. Directly it was said, to my detriment, 

(29) 



30 REMINISCENCES. 

all over the neighborhood: "Brother Young 
is too fond of great folks." 

Then I began pastoral visiting, and met 
with a youth named Frank E. "Williams, 
whose friendship I am still delighted to en- 
joy. Is it not somewhat remarkable that 
these two youths were destined to spend al- 
most half their lives in Nashville, to buy 
lots adjoining each other in Mt. Olivet Cem- 
tery, and to lie side by side when we " shuf- 
fle off this mortal coil?' : It was also a no- 
ticeable and happy coincidence that Hon. 
William M. Cocke, with his " blushing hon- 
ors thick upon him/' was a guest on my 
seventieth birthday. 

At Lauderback's schoolhouse they com- 
plained that I did not preach "loud enough." 
At another place a thin old maid loved to 
hear me because I preached " so much that 
was not gospel." At Rogersville they did 
not like my blue cloth clothes; so I bought 
a black frock, Prince Albert, sic appellatem. 
At Russell's schoolhouse the brethren com- 
plained that T always stopped at the same 
place. There was too much truth in this. 



REMINISCENCES. 31 

At last a queenly old lady declared that the 
poor ought to be visited, but that Brother 
Young was " a little too fond of them." 

These statements are not specially digni- 
fied in the eye of reason, but I shall scatter 
them all through these short chapters, hop- 
ing that they may be taken as useful hints 
by young theologues. 

"When I took charge of the circuit I had 
been just one week out of Dr. Brabson's 
office. I did not have a single sermon; so 
the first day I "held forth" on Romans i. 
16; the next, on Psalm ciii. 1. I have been 
"holding forth" ever since. 

Our presiding elder was Rev. Creed Ful- 
ton. He was certainly the most gifted man 
of that day. All knowledge seemed to be 
at his tongue's end, and he displayed it as if 
it had been the pastime of his youth. Some 
years ago I heard the Archbishop of York 
in the presence of the British Parliament. 
The occasion was the Queen's natal jubilee. 
He had not spoken ten minutes until I was 
reminded of Creed Fulton. Thought I to 
myself: " If Fulton were alive and a dig- 



32 RE MINIS CENCEti. 

nitary of the Church of England, he could 
dispense divinity from lawn sleeves fully 
equal to the Archbishop of York." 

Our elder was a small man, with a cliff- 
like brow. He w T ore black cloth, cut in the 
clerical regulation style. I admired him so 
much that I was unable to discover his im- 
perfections. 

At the Conference in Athens, 1845, I was 
admitted on trial into the traveling connec- 
tion. This was the jubilee week of my 
ecclesiastical life. Here I actually saw a 
Methodist bishop, James O. Andrew. In 
his sermon on Sunday he moved off with 
fluency and power for about thirty minutes; 
then he began to flag, and flagged on to the 
close. I have heard him frequently since, 
and he always did precisely the same way. 
But he was a historic character the South 
will never forget. His fame deepens w^ith 
the roll of years; his monument casts its 
shadow to the end of time. With Soule 
and Andrew in the lead, we got away from 
the Yankees. Thanks be unto the Lord! 

Samuel Patton was the wise man at this 



REMINISCENCES. 33 

Conference, and at all other sessions while 
he lived. James Atkins, the senior, was at 
his zenith. He had been stationed in Ivnox- 
ville, and was now made a presiding* elder. 
This was fame enough in the Holston of 
those days. Everybody seemed to fear Cat- 
lett and Fleming and Mc Anally. They had 
been grand old mountain presiding elders, 
and were not to be trifled with. The pop- 
ular and promising young man w^as "W". G. 
E. Cunnyngham; but, gifted as he was, we 
little dreamed of the volumes of Sunday 
school literature that were ready and wait- 
ing to drip from the point of his pen. 

At the close of the session I was read out 
for Dandridge Circuit. It had only thirteen 
preaching places. We all journeyed off on 
horseback, with an enormous pair of saddle- 
bags underneath us. Those were palmy old 
days. Money to throw at birds? Each un- 
married man received one hundred dollars a 
year, plus socks and yards of gray jeans. 
The married man was allowed two hundred 
dollars a year, and a moiety for each child, 
plus many other little things. 



34: REMINISCENCES. 

On Dandridge Circuit special attention 
was given to protrated meetings : how to an- 
nounce them; how to conduct them; what 
" methods " were best in a revival of religion. 
Lord Nelson's tactics in naval warfare Avill 
give a hint of the conclusion to which I then 
came in spiritual warfare : " Put your guns 
in front of the enemy, and fire broadsides 
until you or he goes to the bottom." 

At the close of this year I bade adieu to 
my beloved East Tennessee and traveled 
westward on horseback. 



VI. 

It is difficult to tell why any young man 

should want to leave East Tennessee, for it 

is certainly the garden spot of the world. 

I am perfectly candid in this statement, and 

arrive at my conclusion in the following 
manner : 

The continent of Xorth America is the 
future home of the most intelligent and the 
most powerful population on the face of the 
planet. Its coast line, indented with gulfs 
and bays, harbors and inlets, invites all the 
world to come. How different from the 
coastlines of South America, Africa, or Aus- 
tralia! The mingling of races improves the 
human constitution in the general issue. On 
the Xorth American continent an admixture 
of blood, such as the history of man never 
furnished before, is in progress. "All kin- 
dreds and nations and tongues under the 
whole heavens" are to mingle in this part of 

the Xew World and work out a final result 

(35) 



36 REMINISCENCES. 

in the physical, mental, and moral condition 
of humanity as perfect as the present con- 
stitution of things will allow. Our moun- 
tain ranges, fluviatile systems, vast plains 
and valleys, offer to the world an agricultural 
country equaled nowiiere else. JSTow it is 
well known and universally admitted that 
the best part of the continent is covered by 
the United States. Of all these States, Ten- 
nessee has the most desirable location, and 
the people of the eastern section so far 
have been the most influential. Blounts, 
Seviers, Cockes, Taylors, and Doaks all be- 
gan their careers in East Tennessee, to whom 
may be added Andrew Jackson and An- 
drew Johnson. When I left, the four great 
political speakers of the State were to be 
found in the eastern portion : Spencer Jar- 
nigan, William T. Senter, Landon C. Haynes, 
and N". G. Taylor. Among the connectional 
officers of our Church there are from the 
soil of the Holston country Dr. E. E. Hoss, 
Dr. James Atkins, and D. M. Smith, Book 
Agent. 

If the average East Tennesseean is a pro- 



REMIXISCEXCES. 37 

vincial, he is also a model patriot. "That is 
the way we do in our end of the State/' is 
his closing argument. If he would travel 
from home, subscribe for about six first- 
class newspapers, and put a few hundred 
volumes in his library, it migfht narrow his 
purse, but it would broaden him in every 
other respect. 

After Dr. Durbin had finished his exten- 
sive European and Oriental travels, and had 
published his " Observations," he said to me: 
" If I had nothing to do but to exist, I 
should pass the remainder of my days in 
Palestine or East Tennessee." 

It was early in September, 1846, when I 
took leave of mv mother and other members 

%t 

of the family, and started on my trip West. 
About the close of the first day I rode right 
up to a country camp meeting, conducted 
by a young brother, Cunnyngham. The 
next morning I preached and came out to 
the Kemmers', on top of the mountain. I 
had been requested to take Miss Ivemmer 
home, but another young gentleman seemed 
anxious to accompany her. I found the es- 



38 REMINISCENCES. 

tablishment an ample one — plenty of stable 
room and servants in each other's way. 
And forasmuch as I was never unwilling to 
rest, I spent a day or more. Before I left, 
Miss Kemraer and I understood each other 
perfectly well. On the next June I returned 
and found her trunks packed and her wait- 
ing maid in readiness. For more than thir- 
ty-two years we sojourned together. Then 
she said: 

'Tis welcome death ; thy freezing kiss 
Emancipates — the rest is bliss. 

My first Sunday in Middle Tennessee was 
spent at Sparta, where I preached twice. 
Anthony Dibrell found me at a hotel, and 
of course I stayed there no longer. "Given 
to hospitality' is a Christian virtue. Mr. 
Dibrell was afterwards Treasurer of the 
State, and that plain, quiet son, George, was 
afterwards to become a major general in a 
war between the States, and after that to 
represent his district several sessions in the 
United States Congress. When his chap- 
lain preached to his command, standing be- 
tween two tallow candles, one of his most 



REMINISCENCES. 39 

devout listeners was the commander in 
chief. I presume that there is no family in 
the middle section of our State better known 
than the Dibrells, of Sparta. 

Then I came to Lebanon, and fell into the 
hands of Rev. Finch P. Scruggs and Calvin 
E. Jackson, Esq. Elegance illustrated, is 
my only remark. 

At Gallatin Robert Hatton, father and 
son, took charge of me, and allowed me to 
preach in town and country whenever I 
chose. 

At Nashville you should have seen me 
" arrive and register'' at the old Sewanee 
Hotel. That night, forty years afterwards, 
when I arrived at the St. Pancras Station, 
in London, and with my family drove to the 
Inns of Court Hotel, I did not feel half so 
" traveled." 

I soon discovered that the Tennessee Con- 
ference of those days belonged to four men — 
A. L. P. Green, J. B. McFerrin, John W. 
Hanner, and F. E. Pitts. Others were com- 
ing on — Xeely, Erwin, Walker, and the like. 
Another, now filling the public eye of 



40 REMINISCENCES. 

Nashville, was ordained a deacon at this 
time. After a few years he married and re- 
moved to the Alabama Conference, in which 
he was a pastor at Montgomery and at Mobile. 
Thence he was sent to ISTew Orleans, after- 
wards to Kansas City and St. Louis. He is 
our oldest and most distinguished " giraffe.' 7 
In his preaching he combines the strength of 
the lion with the flight of the eagle. The 
McKendree people are not ringing the stee- 
ple bell just now: they have one in the pul- 
pit that draws better — Rev. John Ma- 
thews, D.D. 



VII. 
Ix the year 1846 Dr. John "W. Hanner oc- 
cupied the front rank not only in the Ten- 
nessee Conference but in the whole South- 
ern Church. He was the most gifted orator 
and the most learned sermonizer. If he 
could do anything else, I never heard of it. 
If I were called upon to give a list of the 
eloquent preachers, as I have heard them, 
their names would come in the following 
order: Pere Hyacinthe, Charles II. Spur- 
geon, Joseph Parker, and John W. Hanner. 
People were fond of saying that he plagia- 
rized. Do not call me in as a witness. I 
have heard him scores of times, and am sure 
that I never heard him repeat a sermon or 
use a paragraph in which I could see a pla- 



giarism. 



Hanner was a country lad, and had no op- 
portunity for mental training. The illiterate 
youth joined the Conference early in life, 

and began to develop immediately. He was 

(41) 



42 REMINISCENCES. 

small in stature, and wore loose-fitting black 
clothes. He had no home well fitted up, no 
library filled with hundreds of volumes, al- 
though he was amply able to have both. 
He never said a foolish thing in the pul- 
pitn or a wise thing out of it. All people 
sought his company when they wanted a 
genuine, healthy laugh. In the pulpit and 
out of it every word was pronounced accord- 
ing to Webster, and every sentence was 
shaped in the mold of Murray. 

In his old age, and when the blaze of his 
popularity was slightly abated, Dr. Hanner 
was slandered. No well-read man was sur- 
prised at this. St. Chrysostom, the most elo- 
quent preacher in the early ages of the 
Church, was slandered and deposed. In 
consequence thereof he died among the 
mountains of Armenia. John "Wesley was 
slandered, but he had the coolness and the 
courage to ride straight through it all over 
the British Isles, and become the founder of 
Methodism. Dr. John Harris, President of 
New r College in London, was the most pop- 
ular religious writer of the first half of the 



REMINISCENCES. 43 

nineteenth centurv. He was slandered, and 
actually died under the cloud of disgrace. 
But in a little while the slanderer died also, 
and in death confessed that every word was 
false. Dr. Hanner's fame is as sacred to- 
day as if the pen of the slanderer had never 
been lifted. 

At the opening of the Conference session 
Rev. Fountain E. Pitts closed the great re- 
vival in Mclvendree Church. The meeting 
had occupied the three closing months of 
his pastorate. Over five hundred members 
had been added to the Church, among whom 
was William R. Elliston, afterwards so long 
treasurer of our missionary society. As I 
was his guest during the Conference, of 
course I heard much of the wonderful re- 
vival. The pastor conducted it, the pastor 
did all the preaching, the pastor led the 
congregational singing, etc. Fountain E. 
Pitts was the man. 

I helped to build the Tabernacle; I have 
attended regularly every protracted meeting 
held therein. I am prepared to say, very 
deliberately, that if you will sum up the net 



44 REMINISCENCES. 

results to our Church of all these meetings 
you will not find five hundred good, solid 
members. The other denominations can 
speak for themselves. The thousands that 
have been paid to evangelists in the Taber- 
nacle might have been much better expend- 
ed through the Board of Domestic Missions. 
No greater revivalist ever appeared among 
us than F. E. Pitts. He died in Louisville, 
May, 1874. Is it not somewhat remarkable 
that no famous revivalist has ever been ele- 
vated to the episcopacy among us? Ought 
I to except Bishop Marvin? 

Dr. A. L. P. Green preached the " open- 
ing sermon," as we then called it. It was 
on the line of the u Christian evidences," 
and proved very clearly that we are not fol- 
lowing " cunningly devised fables." Dr. 
Green was a calm, solid, wise man. Take 
him anywhere— in the back porch of his 
country home, filled with visitors during the 
summer; at a country camp meeting, where 
audiences rose to their feet under the magic 
spell of his descriptive preaching; at a Gen- 
eral Conference, where his logic bore down 



REMINISCENCES. 45 

all opposition; at a summer resort, where the 
gamesters stopped to listen to his anecdoctes ; 
at a literary round table — Dr. Green was the 
most interesting man I ever saw. He died 
in the summer of 1874.* 

It is exceeedingly fortunate that in all 
deliberative bodies there is one man who is 
always " ready to proceed." In the Tennes- 
see Conference Dr. John B. McFerrin was 
that gentleman. Foremost, midst, and last, he 
was there. Anywhere, anyhow, " anywhen," 
vou knew where to find Belisarius.* 

as 

About the close of the session one Harry 
Hill, a rich man, presented Bishop Andrew 
with a new barouche and a fresh young 
team, whereupon the good bishop invited 
me to become his traveling companion, inti- 
mating that he might finally station me in 
Columbus, Miss. I understood the old gen- 
tleman most perfectly. He wanted a young 
and stalwart coachman. He missed his man. 
I had never harnessed a barouche horse in 
my life. 



*Bead " Celebrities and Less." 
4 



46 REMINISCENCES. 

Dr. Green sent for me, and talked the 
whole matter over, and then advised me to 
take a little country station in the bounds of 
the Dover District. He also counseled me 
to " stick to my books." " Called to preach 
— called to study." 

I must not fail to mention a handsome en- 
tertainment given to a few young gentlemen 
of the learned professions by Mrs. Washing- 
ton Barrow. Her husband had been Amer- 
ican Minister to Portugal. They were both 
fresh from the "Court of Braganza." 






VIII. 

About the year 1845 an attempt was 
made by the rector of the parish in Clarks- 
ville to gather a small congregation at Cum- 
berland Iron Works. It was a failure. 
There was not a drop of Episcopal blood in 
the village. Hon. John Bell, Col. Andrew 
Irwin, Maj. Perkins, Mr. Barnes, and their 
wives, were Presbyterians. Col. Lewis, Dr. 
Cobb, Squire Caldwell, Mr. Cockrill, and 
their families, were Methodists. So we took 
charge of the handsome little church, gath- 
ered up all the prayer books and packed 
them away carefully. Our services were 
simple, straightforward, and evangelical, 
such as Methodists and Presbyterians like. 
In this pulpit we maintained a stationed 
preacher until the fall of Fort Donelson and 
the destruction of the village. The place 
was sought after by the young men of the 
Conference. The white people wanted Sun- 
day school and only one sermon on Sunday. 

(47) 



48 REMINISCENCES. 

At night we preached to a vast congregation 
of negroes. This left ample time for mis- 
cellaneous reading and study, and I venture 
to close this paragraph by stating that we 
were amply paid for our services. 

Col. George T. Lewis had a talent for con- 
necting usefulness with pleasure. He was 
fond of riding and driving through the vast 
coaling grounds belonging to the iron works. 
Sometimes he would stop and select a site 
for a protracted meeting. Somebody would 
be employed to take rough plank and put up 
a little platform for the preacher and bench- 
es for the people. Here we would hold a 
two days' meeting. We had twenty-four 
converts at one of these. 

It was in this vast coaling ground that we 
found a young, illiterate country girl. We 
invited her to visit us. We loaned her mag- 
azines and books. In less than two years 
she was a paid contributor to Grodey's " La- 
dies' Book." 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen 
And waste its sweetness. 

In the fall of 1848 I picked up my wife 



REMINISCENCES. 49 

and child and went to Columbia, by appoint- 
ment from Bishop Paine. Maury County 
was at its best. Polks, Pillows, and Frier- 
sons galore. The Morgans and Mayeses, the 
Youngs and Porters, the Nelsons and Nichol- 
sons were among the pillar families of our 
Church. Maury was not only the best-cul- 
tivated county in the State, but Columbia 
was the Athens of the South. Jackson Col- 
lege, Ravenscroft College, Episcopal Insti- 
tute, Athenaeum, and the Tennessee Confer- 
ence Female College were all located here. 
Many distinguished gentlemen lived here — 
Bishop James H. Otey, of the diocese of 
Tennessee; "William H. Polk, American 
Minister to the kingdom of Naples; A. O. 
P. Nicholson, future Chief Justice of Ten- 
nessee; and James K. Polk, President of 
the United States. His house was a small 
one-story frame building that might have 
rented for three hundred a year. His moth- 
er lived in a small, unpretentious brick. On 
account of the religious affiliations of her 
son and her daughter, the old lady came to 
my church frequently. She finally came to 



50 REMINISCENCES. 

the conclusion that the young man might 
learn to preach very well if he would only 
"use -papers in the pulpit." All the pastors 
in the city "used papers" — "drowsy tink- 
lings that lulled the distant folds." 

It has been my good fortune to see some 
remarkable processions. Once when a crown 
prince and a party of twenty-five noblemen 
were received by one hundred thousand of 
the people, and afterwards when the Sultan 
of Turkey was accompanied from his kiosk 
to the mosque of Santa Sophia for morning 
prayers by ten thousand of the flower of the 
Ottoman army; but not one of these was 
more imposing than that vast procession 
which moved from the public square of Co- 
lumbia toward Spring Hill in order to 
receive the late President of the United 
States, returning to his quiet little home. I 
suppose that every presentable carriage in 
the county was in that line, that every su- 
perb horse in Middle Tennessee was in some 
one of the cavalry companies. The proces- 
sion was over two miles in length. The 
bands of music were "ordered on." On 



RE1IIXISCEXCES. 51 

our arrival in Columbia the President's open 
carriage was driven to his mother's front 
door. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow made the re- 
ception speech. Polk replied. These were 
his last words: "My race is run, my career 
is ended, my sun is set forever." At this 
moment the door was opened, and the illus- 
trious son was in the arms of his mother. 
The next day, at his request, the clergy 
called. Polk was dressed precisely like an 
English bishop. In a few weeks he moved 
to Xashville, where he died. The English 
statesmen are fond of saying that no Presi- 
dent of the United States of America ever 
sent out such able messages. He was bur- 
ied from McKendree Church in 1850. 

While I was pastor at Columbia I noticed 
a youth of about twenty summers who was 
disposed to be very useful. He was the son 
of a prosperous farmer, and a graduate of 
Jackson College. If we wanted a speech at 
any juvenile meeting, Ave always called on 
him. He studied law under Judge Dilla- 
hunty, went to Texas, afterwards to Wel- 
lington, Mo. Here he married and was li- 



52 REMINISCENCES. 

censed to preach. There was one subject 
on which Bishop McTyeire and I could al- 
ways agree: that Dr. William M. Leftwich 
should have been in the front rank for the 
last quarter of a century. 

Our Church was now considered peaceful 
and prosperous. In 1844: the entering wedge 
had been driven; in 1845 the disruption had 
been completed. In 1846 our first General 
Conference had been held and two first- 
class bishops had been made: Robert Paine 
and William Capers. The cloud of ecclesi- 
astical warfare had gone up, the smoke of 
battle had blown away, and the Southern 
skies were clear and beautiful. 



IX. 

Ix the fall of 1850, through the partiality 
of Dr. Green, Bishop Capers sent me to 
Huntsville, Ala. This appointment was far 
above my ability, and, I must say, far above 
my ambition. Considering numbers, wealth, 
intelligence, and piety, it was one of the 
first in Southern Methodism. I was twenty- 
six. Forasmuch as there was no parsonage 
in some "Bat Row Wo. 2," old Mother Bibb 
took charge of us. In her vast establish- 
ment we had " ample scope and verge 
enough. " She was the widow of Thomas 
Bibb, first Governor of Alabama. 

In her parlors I met certain young people 
whose literary attainments and whose con- 
versational powers are still memorable. A 
grandson, T. Bibb Bradley, had graduated 
at Union University under old Dr. Knott, 
and had loitered about Boston and New 
York until he seemed to be on familiar terms 
with all the young prose writers and poets 

of the day. Edwin P. Whipple, 1ST. P. Wil- 

(53) 



54 REMINISCENCES. 

lis, and Edgar Allan Poe were his favorites. 
His descriptions of them were more edifying 
than the reading of Griswold, that "old dry 
nurse " of the American prose writers and 
poets. 

Another young prodigy was James 
Brookes, a Tennesseean. He afterwards 
graduated at the Union Theological Semi- 
nary in ISTew York, and, early in life, suc- 
ceeded Dr. ~N. L. Rice in the Walnut Street 
Presbyterian Church, St. Louis. The grim 
old fellows prophesied empty pews. The re- 
sult was that the vestibule could not hold 
the overflow. The history of heroes is the 
history of young men. Everybody in St. 
Louis now remembers the late Rev. James 
Brookes, D.D., LL.D,, by far the most elo- 
quent and successful pastor that ever trod 
the ecclesiastical stage of the "future great 
city." 

There also met with us occasionally a 
granddaughter of Mother Bibb, who, but for 
the trammels of wealth, might have been the 
equal of Augusta J. Evans. Wealth is not 
generally beneficial to people of genius. It 



RE MIX IXC ENCES. 55 

suits that other class who take pleasure in 
building schools for the blind, in establish- 
ing Randall Cole Industrial Schools, in pay- 
ing for Mattie Cupples Orphan Homes, and 
supporting Peabody formal Colleges. The 
latter is the most useful and Christlike class. 

A mere youth from Center College, Ky., 
came in on us twice a year. He afterwards 
graduated at Princeton, but entered the 
ministry among us. Dr. J. W. Lew 7 is spent 
more than half his life in St. Louis. 

'No small city eyer owed more to its loca- 
tion than Huntsville. The earth rises up 
gradually hundreds of feet above the finest 
spring that bubbles from the face of the 
earth. The fountain of the Virgin that 
flows from the eastern base of Mount Mo- 
riah, the apostle's fountain on the way to 
Jericho, are mere imitations when compared 
to it. Mature and art have made the place 
so attractive that it has been a sort of hive 
for elderly people of distinction and wealth. 
Chief Justice Parsons, Leroy Pope Walker, 
Senator Jere Clemons, C. C. Clay, father 
and son, and Mrs. Jane Hamilton Childs 



56 REMINISCENCES. 

were among- the personages who frightened 
me so dreadfully on Sunday mornings. 
These had all graduated in Washington eti- 
quette, and therefore did not disturb me by 
their presence at the evening service. They 
were dining. 

The Huntsville Female College was es- 
tablished in the latter part of 1851. This 
suggested a visit to the session of the Geor- 
gia Conference in search of a president. 
There I met Dr. George F. Pierce. He was 
remarkably handsome, amazingly eloquent, 
and companionable to the last degree. There 
I met also a young man of about two years' 
standing. He preached one morning on 
Samson and the Philistines. I saw then 
that he was an admirer of strength. He is 
now one of the ten pillars under Southern 
Methodism — Bishop Key. Old Dr. Lovick 
Pierce managed the Conference as easily as 
one waving a willow wand. 

During the second year my people in 
Huntsville were gracious enough to liberate 
me during July and August, that I might 
make a tour of the Union. So I gathered 



REMINISCENCES. 57 

all my gold together and took leave. If I 
were a rhetorician, I should undertake to de- 
scribe the happenings of this summer. At 
least twice a week I heard a preacher of con- 
tinental reputation. Every one preached 
without manuscript. 

Dr. John Lord, of Buffalo, interested me in 
various ways. He wore buff pantaloons and 
vest to match, a blue swallow-tail coat with 
metal buttons, a ruffled shirt with an enor- 
mous pin. In other words, he w^as exactly 
in the style of the elderly gentlemen of those 
days. A priestly garment he would not wear. 
He refused to advertise his religion or his pro- 
fession by the cut of his clothes. After he 
served them many years, his congregation 
concluded to get rid of him in the usual 
Presbyterian style. Dr. Lord's successor 
came. He had the canonical garments, but 
he did not have " the action and the utter- 
ance and the power of speech to stir men's 
blood." He cleaned out the church decent- 
ly. The old pastor was brought back. I 
heard him in the summer time, "when the 
people are out of town," but I was very 



58 REMINISCENCES. 

thankful to get a seat in the gallery. A 
hearing ear comes to the speaking tongue. 

Lebanon, Tenn., is just large enough for 
a university town. The professors are scat- 
tered all over the delightful place. Students 
board in every family. Intelligence is like 
the rays of the sun. Religion is respected 
and enjoyed. The churches are filled at 
each service. Congregational singing is 
fashionable, and the Church members pray 
in public. At the close of the year 1853, 
when I expected to be returned, I received 
a letter from Bishop Andrew, from which I 
make a quotation: " Unless you consider it 
oppression, I shall transfer you to the St. 
Louis Conference, and station you in First 
Church." 

I did not consider myself oppressed then, 
nor have I ever been oppressed since. My 
bishops have never been oppressors. They 
have always been Christian gentlemen who 
understood their business. 



X. 

Our famous cities have usually been built 
in our great valleys. Thebes, Memphis, and 
Cairo in the Valley of the ^ile; Babylon 
and Nineveh in the Valley of the Euphrates 
and the Tigris; Rome on the banks of the 
Tiber; and London on the Thames. The 
rich agriculturists and manufacturers live in 
the valleys. One thousand feet above these 
may be found the vast multitude of average 
farmers; one thousand feet higher still, herds- 
men and shepherds; above these, hunters and 



savages. 



We are not surprised that Humboldt se- 
lected St. Louis as the future great city of 
the world. He knew that the Mississippi 
and its tributaries formed the most exten- 
sive fluviatile system on earth. He knew 
that the Mississippi Valley contained more 
arable acres than any other valley on the 
globe. He saw that St. Louis had a central 

location and a back country that reached to 

(59) 



60 REMINISCENCES. 

" sundown." So his selection was made ac- 
cording to the laws of science and com- 
merce, and with all history to back him. 
London and New York may lead for the 
next five hundred or a thousand years; but 
St. Louis is the " future great city." With- 
in the last fifty years it has grown with con- 
stant regularity from one hundred thousand 
to its present enormous size. Everywhere 
in St. Louis to-day you can hear and see the 
work of growth going on around you. 

At the time I landed the city had a num- 
ber of pastors with national reputation. Ev- 
erybody had heard of Dr. Nathan L. Rice, 
pastor of the Walnut Street Presbyterian 
Church. He was the most learned debater 
on controversial subjects our country has 
yet produced. He was put forward by the 
Protestants of Kentucky and Ohio to con- 
duct the great debate on Romanism with 
Archbishop Purcell. He was the champion 
selected to meet Alexander Campbell on the 
subject of baptism. I was fortunate enough 
to hear him and Orestes A. Brownson, LL.D., 
of Boston. 



REMIXI8CENCES. 61 

That oral controversy originated thus: 
Dr. Brownson was invited by the Catholics 
to deliver a course of lectures in St. Louis. 
He came. His first audience numbered 
about three thousand. At the close of the 
lecture he challenged the crowd to produce 
a man who was able to answer his arguments 
— he was in search of such an individual. 
Instantly a plain man rose up in the middle 
of the room, and replied: " Doctor, you need 
not travel any farther. I will reply to-mor- 
row night in this hall." The debate lasted 
fourteen nights. 

Dr. Rice edited the St. Louis Presbyte- 
rian, preached regularly three times a week, 
to which he occasionally added a protracted 
meeting in his own church. The Doctor 
afterwards went to Chicago on a call of ten 
thousand a year, made by McCormick, of 
reaper fame. Thence to the Fifth Avenue, 
JSTew York. 

Another clerical magnate was Bishop 
Hawkes, of the Diocese of Missouri. He 
was descended from the Mohawk tribe, and 
claimed to be an Indian octoroon. He was 



62 REMINISCENCES. 

an oddity from another fact. He was an in- 
teresting and graceful extemporize^ never 
having written fifty sermons in his life. We 
did not know then that over in the Church 
of England deans and bishops and archbish- 
ops were extemporaneous speakers of great 
fluency and power. At the close of Edward 
Everett's oration on Washington, Hawkes 
declared that all the other public speaking 
was child's prattle compared to it. 

The most distinguished Methodist divines 
of the city were Dr. D. R. McAnally and 
Dr. Joseph Boyle. The first was from the 
hills of East Tennessee. He had been Pres- 
ident of the Female Institute at Knoxville, 
and was now editor of the St. Louis Advo- 
cate. His editorial career is the longest in 
the history of our Church.* Dr. Boyle was 
an Eastern man — large, handsome, eloquent, 
and rich. A more faithful pastor would be 
seldom found. 

The lay celebrities were Trusten Polk and 
Uriel Wright. Polk was a learned lawyer 

Read " Celebrities and Less." 



REMINISCENCES. 63 

and a model class leader. When he was 
elected Governor of Missouri the smart set 
of Jefferson City knew at once that there 
would be no inauguration ball. In the place 
thereof the distinguished class leader gave 
them a banquet of unusual elegance. In a 
few davs thereafter he was elected to the 
United States Senate.* Wright was so elo- 
quent and logical that he appeared in all the 
great lawsuits. His smallest fee was five 
hundred dollars. During one of my pro- 
tracted meetings he conducted the public 
service for me twice. Why not talk well on 
religion? He talked well on many other 
subjects.* 

I cannot persuade myself to close this 
reminiscence without mentioning the names 
of two young people who afterwards mar- 
ried and lived together with almost perfect 
conjugal affection. Samuel Cupples was a 
little over twenty years old. He had come 
to St. Louis about 1850 to keep books on the 
levee. Now he was of the firm of Cupples 

*Read " Celebrities and Less." 



64 REMINISCENCES. 

& Marston, wooden and willow ware. 
Among* the young people of First Church 
he was in the lead. Whenever work was to 
be done you could find him without hunting. 
This is that same Samuel Cupples who has 
filled his place with marked ability in so many 
Annual and General Conferences. Miss Mar- 
tha Kells was my constant helper in pro- 
tracted meetings. She and I conducted one 
for thirty consecutive nights at the First 
Church. These two young folks married, 
and spent their lives in doing good. They 
paid for the Methodist Orphans' Home. 
"With all his liberality how Mr. Cupples has 
amassed such an enormous fortune as a reg- 
ular merchant may be explained by Luke 
vi. 38. By all this I mean to say that my 
St. Louis friend is a religious layman. 



XL 

At a General Conference held in St. 
Louis in 1850 Dr. Bascom was elected bish- 
op. He held one Conference, and then the 
Lord took him on high. He has the reputa- 
tion of being the most eloquent man our 
Church has yet produced. He was not so in 
fact. In 1854 Pierce, Kavanaugh, and Ear- 
ly were elevated to the episcopacy. Bishop 
Pierce was great and grand in every direc- 
tion except one. He never could learn how 
to " bring salt to soup" like Bishop Dog- 
gett. Kavanaugh was simple as a child out 
of the pulpit, but astonished everybody by 
the splendor of his style in it. Early knew 
nothing in the books, but everything out of 
them. He came to my house in 1855 on his 
way to the seat of the St. Louis Conference. 
I told him to give himself no trouble, he 
should be " personally conducted." So we 
traveled the first part of the way by railway, 
then by Troy coach, and finally landed at 

Springfield in a hired conveyance. The old 

(65) 



66 REMINISCENCES. 

gentleman was cheerful and talkative from 
start to finish. * 

At the close of the session he read me out 
as presiding elder of the St Louis District. 
This was my first trip. They say that Bish- 
op Candler last fall " compassed sea and land ,: 
to fill the pulpits of St. Louis with distin- 
guished men. I am sure that no one will be 
offended if I compare his appointments with 
those of Bishop Early forty-four years ago : 
First Church, Charles B. Parsons, D.D., 
LL.D., a reformed actor; * Centenary, Broth- 
er Enoch M. Marvin; Asbury, Joseph Boyle, 
D.D.; Mound, William M. Leftwich, M.A., 
Jackson College; St. Louis Circuit, Thomas 
M. Finney, M.A., Yale College; Sixteenth 
Street, John C. Shackelford, M.A., Prince- 
ton, N". J.; Manchester Circuit, Jacob Ditz- 
ler, M.A., Hamilton College; Carondelet, D. 
E. McAnally, D.D.* These brethren rep- 
resented at the ensuing Conference that the 
presiding elder had been a "very obedient' 
master. So Bishop Pierce returned me to 

* Eead " Celebrities and Less." 






REVIXISCENCES. 67 

the district, and I made a second trip with 
the same company. 

Marvin was a native of Northwest Missouri 
when it was a primitive forest. He had no 
literary advantages whatever, except the ob- 
scurest country schools. But God called 
him to the ministry, and he had a genius for 
preaching. He was neither a rhetorician nor 
an orator, but his sermons were surcharged 
with a holy influence. If a sinner wanted 
to quail, he had nothing to do but to sit 
down in front of Marvin's pulpit; if a saint 
wanted to shout, he took the same position. 
There was a Bible on it and a man behind 
it and a God over it at every service. He 
and Caples were called the " thunder-pipes 
of the "West; ,: but Caples was somewhat 
timid under oak-grained ceilings. Marvin 
knew nothing of fear. He could have 
preached just as well in St. Paul's Cathe- 
dral as under a brush arbor. When our 
first quarterly meeting came on at Cente- 
nary Church he said to me at the close of the 
third sermon: "I will preach to-night if you 
will allow me to explain why. My quarter- 



68 REMINISCENCES. 

ly meetings are always protracted. You 
will rest to-night; but I shall expect you 
on Monday night." 

When Brother Marvin took charge of Cen- 
tenary you should have seen his country- 
made clothes, especially that blue overcoat. 
The ladies took charge of him, and very 
soon had him enveloped in black French 
cloth — tout ensemble. Ten years after this 
he landed in New Orleans to be ordained a 
bishop. Old Dr. Prottsman will bear me 
witness how the bishop-elect was conducted 
to a clothing store before he was allowed to 
make his appearance on the floor of the Gen- 
eral Conference. About this time Marvin 
began to write books, and continued to pub- 
lish volume after volume until death para- 
lyzed the facile fingers. 

Jacob Ditzler, out on the Manchester Cir- 
cuit, was from the blue grass of Kentucky. 
He w T as a learned youth. "All things he 
seemed to know/' He did once acknowl- 
edge to me that he had not read the " Pil- 
grim's Progress" and "Pobinson Crusoe." 
There were not appointments enough on 



REMINISCENCES. 69 

the circuit to give full scope to his activ- 
ity, so he built brush arbors in various 
neighborhoods and held protracted meetings. 
Dr. Ditzler has been of great service to our 
Church by the books he has written, and on 
many a " glorious and well-foughten " field 
of debate. He is somewhat singular. He 
thinks if all men were to hang like a string 
of candles, or rattle like a bag of marbles, we 
should have no variety. One of those tire- 
some old broadbrims used to say to him: 
"Mr. Wesley always rose at four." "Mr. 
Wesley always preached at five;'' "Mr. 
Wesley always retired at nine." Ditzler re- 
plied: "Well, what if he did?" 

Thomas M. Finney was the son of a rich 
man, had graduated at Yale College, had 
read law with Edward Bates, and was now 
filling his second or third appointment. 

The Church contributed as many thou- 
sands to various Church enterprises this year 
as it had given hundreds the year before. 

During my first year in Columbia, Tenn., 
we buried our first child, Fanny Forrester. 
Now we buried our second, Hillary Summer- 



70 REMINISCENCE®. 

field. The one was seven weeks old; the 
other was seven years. Our servant maid 
died also. From this time my wife and I 
traveled the pathway alone. 

In the winter of 1855 I tested the bitter- 
ness of cold weather. Two circuits were 
some distance in the country. The morning 
came to start out to Rich Woods. The mer- 
cury stood at twenty-two degrees below 
zero. Shall I stay at home, or shall I em- 
ploy a regular city hackman to take me? 
The question was soon decided, and a white 
man with a good team and a strong, close 
carriage stood at the door. Overcoats, 
cloaks, and Baltimore blankets were brought 
into requisition. At the first quarterly 
meeting the hackman was gloriously con- 
verted. At the second he rejoiced all the 
time. When we got back to the city he 
wanted nothing but his incidental expenses, 
and insisted on going again. Of course I 
thought the workman should be paid for his 
time. 

]N^ow for broad prairies and an abundance 
of country air. 



XII. 

The richest farming country I have ever 
seen were the four counties embraced in the 
Lexington District. The staple production 
was hemp* ^Negroes were the most numer- 
ous class of workingmen. The manners and 
customs of the people were like those prevail- 
ing in the South. Among the white people 
there seemed to be two classes — u prairie 
folks" and " timberites." The first of these 
were the aristocratic people. At the first 
quarterly meeting I attended they gave me 
to understand that the horse and buggy I 
brought from St. Louis would not do at all. 
They were not en regie by at least fifty 
years. Rich people never hesitate to give 
advice. Have not they succeeded? Are 
they not wise? 

Lexington District had ten appointments 
— five stations and five circuits. At the 
close of the first round I determined on sev- 
eral new churches. In less than three years 

(71) 



72 REMINISCENCES. 

they were all completed and paid for — at 
Lexington, Independence, Dover, Pleasant 
Hill, and in the country. So the prosperous 
brethren found a rent for more than fifty 
thousand dollars of surplus funds. 

The most western charge on the district 
was Kansas City. This was an aggregation 
of houses, divided by awfully dirty lanes 
and gutters called streets and alleys. The 
place contained eleven thousand white folks 
and Indians. The Wyandottes had read in 
a St. Louis paper that false and foolish story 
about my descent from the Cherokees, so 
they came swarming over at each quarterly 
meeting to hear the tall chief. Mrs. ]^orth- 
rup, a banker's wife, always spoke in the 
love feasts. She could tell the delightful 
story with much fluency and state the order 
of God's operation in her heart with great 
precision. The missionary to her tribe came 
and preached; her soul was enlightened and 
made sorry for sin; she trusted in the blood 
of Christ and was regenerated by the Spirit. 
She always closed with the same words: 
" Me happy heap ! Me happy heap ! " Many 



REMINISCENCES. 73 

years after this, at a session of Conference 
held at Wyandotte City, I found myself 
quartered at the Northrups. They had got- 
ten rich, and lived in ample style. Kansas 
City was the place of departure for the nu- 
merous Santa Fe trains — ox trains; now it 
is one of the great railroad centers of the 
world. Kansas City was then an irregular 
village; now it is a large and stately city. 

I cannot take leave of Upper Missouri 
without testifying to the graceful and un- 
bounded hospitality of the people. At the 
ample homes of Mrs. Porter, Robert Brown, 
C. D. Kavanaugh, and others, I spent many 
delightful summer weeks. I also wish to 
record my thoughts and expectations of cer- 
tain young men. I knew that if JSTathan 
Scarritt kept quiet, or even went to sleep, 
he was bound to become a millionaire. No 
man in that region ever made a better use 
of his prosperity. I expected a young law- 
yer in Kansas City who talked Thackeray's 
" Humorists" and Boswell's " Johnson" to 
go to the Supreme Bench of Missouri. He 
did. I picked out Thomas Crittenden, of 



74 REMINISCENCES. 

Lexington, for a Governor of the State. I 
selected Vest for any honors within human 
reach. To all of which I will add Hon. "W. 
D. Beard, who married Miss Henderson, of 
Lexington. He is now one of the Supreme 
Judges of Tennessee. 

But the war was coming on. Yancey was 
abroad in the South. The States were be- 
ginning to secede from the Union. Lincoln's 
proclamation was sounding through the land. 
Wide-awake processions a mile in length 
were marching through the streets of St. 
Louis. My work on the district was finished 
up, and my report was ready for Confer- 
ence. 

After I had been in Missouri seven years 
to a day, Bishop Kavanaugh was kind 
enough to transfer me back to Tennessee. 
On my arrival at the hotel in Nashville I 
met Bishop Pierce, just out of the chair of 
the Tennessee Conference. He informed me 
that, at the request of Gov. Campbell, Col. 
Stokes, Dr. Owen, Henry Fraser, and others, I 
was stationed in Lebanon again. The place 
suited me exactly, for if you want to study go 



6 



REMINISCENCES. 75 

to Lebanon and select you a quiet home. Ev- 
erything there is provocative of study. The 
pulpit feels twice a week the weight of an 
educated and an intelligent congregation. 
At your boarding house the table is sur- 
rounded by university students of every 
grade. You are invited to join some ma- 
ture literary or professional club not con- 
nected with the university. Down on the pub- 
lic square an LL.D. conducted me across it 
to a bookstore to convince me that the letter 
"s" in the name of Edward Payson was not 
sibilant. 

The country home of Rev. John Kelley 
and his wife, Lavinia Kelley, was the center 
of attraction for us. You began to improve 
from the time you entered the front gate, and 
improvement continued until you left it the 
next week. Mrs. Kelley could hold a con- 
versation with you. We could turn our 
thoughts and sentiments and knowledge to- 
gether and each one rise up the wiser and 
better. Some people talk with you by the 
hour who seem to have passed the following 
resolution : " Be it unanimously resolved 



76 REMINISCENCES. 

that everybody and everything in this world 
is wrong." Whoever heard Mrs. Kelley re- 
peat one word of gossip or animadversion or 
tirade ? J^one. She could and did converse. 
Her knowledge was as boundless as that of 
Hannah More, and her religion far more ex- 
perimental. 

When the battle of Manassas was fought 
I was selected to conduct the thanksgiving 
service. That event marked the close of my 
" acceptability and usefulness 5 with the 
most influential members of my congrega- 
tion. They were on the other side. 



XIII. 

The Wesleyan University at Florence, 
Ala., was the successor of the old Lagrange 
College. The grounds were ample and 
beautiful. The buildings cost forty thou- 
sand dollars. It had also a small endow- 
ment. The president's house was nearby, to 
which belonged five acres of ground. I was 
elected to the presidency in the fall of 1861, 
and took charge in the winter, at a salary of 
twenty-five hundred dollars a year. My 
predecessor was K. H. Rivers, D.D., whose 
last catalogue showed over three hundred 
names. His predecessors were James "W. 
Hardy, A.M., and S. "W. Moore, D.D., whose 
regime stretched back to Bishop Robert 
Paine. I was not well qualified for the 
place, but I determined to study. So I or- 
dered on a cord of books — works on logic, 
rhetoric, metaphysics, political economy, 
Christian evidences, and the like. They are 

all in my library yet, except those borrowed 

(77) 



78 REMINISCENCES. 

by former Yanderbilt professors. I was 
fond of college life. Went in at nine o'clock 
A.M., and came out at twelve. For six days 
in the week I had nothing to do but exist, 
study, and lecture. Its quietude and monot- 
ony suited my indolent disposition exactly. 
My pulpit labor never exceeded two ser- 
mons on Sunday. I remained in Florence 
three years. 

The faculty was composed of gentlemen 
worthy and well qualified. S. P. Rice, A.M., 
Principal of the Preparatory Department, 
had been teaching from his boyhood. He 
was an old-fashioned scholar — was acquaint- 
ed with no macadamized roads to learning. 
He knew all the elementary books " by 
heart/' could read Greek to Homer and Lat- 
in to Juvenal. He was familiar with mathe- 
matics from Ray's Arithmetic to the Mechan- 
ique Celeste of La Place. He could do one 
thing more : he was a fine leader of congre- 
gational singing. 

Prof. Prouskoski was a Polander — taught 
the ancient and modern classics. He brought 
evidences of high standing from four Ger- 



REMIXISCEXCES. 79 

man universities. He was the loneliest hu- 
man being I have ever seen this side of Mar 
Saba. He lived precisely as a hermit is sup- 
posed to live. 

Prof. Peak taught the higher mathemat- 
ics, and was at the head of our military de- 
partment. He graduated at the University 
in Charlottesville, and was an " Old Virgin- 
ian " from crown to heel. Of the other pro- 
fessors I need not write just now. Most of 
them were in the Confederate army. 

I am happy to say that some of our stu- 
dents have been heard from — McCook, of 
the North; Ross, of Texas; and Judge Es- 
tes, of Memphis. 

Although we were in the midst of the civil 
war, there were several interesting people 
still in Florence. Old Gov. Robert Patton 
was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian 
Church. He could manage an enormous cot- 
ton plantation, could count interest on a 
note until two o'clock in the afternoon, could 
govern the State of Alabama, but nobody 
expected him to preach. One Sunday morn- 
ing when the Federals were present Dr. 



80 REMINISCENCES. 

Mitchell was captured as he came down 
from the pulpit, and sent to the military pris- 
on at Alton, 111. Elder Patton gave notice 
that the Sunday school and morning services 
of that Church would be continued with the 
usual regularity. Every wit and humorist 
of the town attended, and each Sunday 
morning heard a sermon from one of the 
leading party politicians of the State. At one 
service he aired the whole volume of his sa- 
cred learning to prove that "John the Bap- 
tist was not John the evangelist, but a very 
different individual." 

Hon. Richard Walker made his home in 
Florence. He had graduated at Princeton, 
N". J., and was now the Chief Justice of Al- 
abama. He intermeddled with every spe- 
cies of literary knowledge, and was a wel- 
come guest in all learned circles. 

I was made acquainted with another per- 
sonage, Gen. "W. T. Sherman. While his 
vast army was passing through Florence on 
the way to Chattanooga the commander in 
chief established his headquarters in the li- 
brary room of the college. He was a tall, 



REMINISCENCES. 81 

hardy, and homely man — walked back and 
forth and talked incessantly. Here are some 
of his assertions : "I have lived in the 
South; " " I am not opposed to slavery; r ' " I 
am in favor of it;' : "I am fighting to put 
down this rebellion and restore the Union; ' 
"War is cruel — war is hell; but this one 
will continue until the Union is restored." 
Gen. Sherman knew that Dodge's brigade 
would be passing through after he left, so he 
gave me a paper protecting the college prop- 
erty and faculty. He knew Dodge and his 
men. Gen. Sherman spent the latter part 
of his life in St. Louis, entertaining admir- 
ing visitors. 

During our residence in Florence we fre- 
quently had a pleasant visitor from Tuscum- 
bia, Rev. James D. Barbee, D.D. I remem- 
ber well the Conference of 1852, when the 
burly youth came up to join us. He was 
my roommate at the house of Thomas Mar- 
tin, of Pulaski. He had never taken a text 
or preached a sermon. He cex^tainly has 
been an apt scholar since then. Forty-six 
years of blameless life, of self-denying and 



82 REMINISCENCES. 

arduous labor, ought to stand for something, 
even among those " spiritual r} brethren who 
have animadverted so sincerely and so ve- 
hemently. 

When the war was over other bright citi- 
zens returned. Among them was Gen. E. A. 
O'Neal, who led a grand charge at Chancel- 
lorsville and came home wounded. He aft- 
erwards served two terms as Governor of 
Alabama. Judge Henry C. Jones came 
home from the Confederate Congress and 
enlivened the town with his marvelous gifts 
of speech. 

The Wesleyan University was converted 
into the State formal School, which is run- 
ning prosperously to the present time. An 
important church in Nashville had to be 
finished and paid for. Dr. Green set his 
head on giving the task to me. So I re- 
turned to the pastorate. 



XIV. 

Just across the Cumberland River is a 
population of twenty thousand. This is 
East Nashville, where so many of our fine 
old folks live. About the year 1860 they 
undertook to build Tulip Street Church. 
When the war came on they had an unfin- 
ished building and a considerable debt. 
This was my appointment in the fall of 
1865. 

A genuine revival of religion is frequently 
a cure for all Church troubles. So, after the 
Conference adjourned, I continued the gospel 
services every evening. The result was the 
conversion of sixty-seven excellent people, 
each one of whom united with the Church. 
AVe had no evangelist to help us with his 
" seventeen separate and distinct proposi- 
tions" at the close of each service, but we had 
our neighbor, old Dr. T. O. Summers. There 
was a vast amount of show-window learning 
in his Sunday morning sermons, but there 

was a plenitude of gospel also. He was not 

(83) 



84 RE MINIS CENCES. 

a very accurate elementary scholar, but on 
all the high points he was peerless. Before 
the close of the year the completed church 
was dedicated and paid for. The communi- 
cants had increased over sevenfold, or from 
37 to 267. 

I had attended a General Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church held in In- 
dianapolis in 1856. This was the session 
at which Dr. Abel Stevens insisted that no 
first-class man should be elected a bishop — 
that an absolutely first-class man with schol- 
arly habits would grow weary of trundling 
around from sea to sea holding Annual Con- 
ferences. Men of high mediocrity suited 
best for the office. 

I had also been a visitor to the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, held in Nashville in 1858. 
Here Dr. H. ]ST. McTyeire came to the front 
as a debater, and Dr. P. P. Neely as a 
preacher. Here Dr. W. M. "Wightman, who 
was almost certain of election, spoke vigor- 
ously against the election of any additional 
bishops. 



REMINISCENCES. 85 

But at our General Conference of 1866 I 
was a member, and somewhat familiar with 
the routine of the proceedings. Two things 
interested me : the preaching and Dr. Green's 
memorial. Hanner led off, as usual, facile 
princeps, Pierce next, Doggett and others 
at a distance. Summers poured out vast 
loads of learning. For that section of the 
memorial recommending an extension of the 
pastoral term the young men of the Confer- 
ence were a solid unit. We got a noticeable 
majority. After the vote was taken, late at 
night, we were somewhat boisterous in our 
demonstrations. We now had the privilege 
of convincing our people that we could preach 
four years without repeating the "same ser- 
mon from the same text to the same congre- 
gation." 

For the section on lay representation we 
were not so unified. To hold Annual and 
General Conferences with none but clerical 
members looked too priestly; to introduce 
lay delegates might be risky. So the debate 
ran on. The vote was finally taken, and lay 
delegation prevailed, I am happy to say. 



86 REMINISCENCES. 

A new chapter on the support of the min- 
istry, and the ritual for the reception of 
Church members, originated at this Confer- 
ence. They were afterwards rewritten and 
improved. 

We had elected no bishops since 1854. 
Soule was disabled by age; Andrew asked 
for a superannuated relation; another should 
have retired. So we agreed on the election 
of four additional bishops. The day for the 
election was fixed some distance off. Can- 
didates were manifold; "timber" was abun- 
dant. We never had as many distinguished 
friends in our lives as we had at N"ew Or- 
leans, May, 1866. I rather enjoyed it. " He 
that will have friends must show himself 
friendly. " William M. Wightman, David 
S. Doggett, Enoch M. Marvin, and Holland 
!N". McTyeire were elected. These were all 
thoroughbreds, except one, and he had "a 
spark o ? natur's fire." If Bishop Wightman 
lacked anything in fitness or polish, I was 
unable to discover it. To attend all the 
Texas Conferences in his company was a 
means of grace. I did not know that any 



REMINISCENCES. 87 

man since the days of Martin Luther spent 
so much time in prayer. Bishop Doggett 
was a memoriter preacher of great eloquence 
and power. He was jealous for the very 
fringes of the tabernacle. He never could 
understand the Texans. Bishop McTyeire 
was created for the office to which we elect- 
ed him. He was a natural born superin- 
tendent — overseer. John Wesley himself 
was not fonder of administration than this 
one of his successors. In whatever com- 
pany you met him you expected him to take 
the chair. Old Commodore Vanderbilt once 
said to me: "Is McTyeire a good judge of 
human nature? " " Yes," said I. "Well, I 
thought he was, or I never should have 
given him so much money for that college." 
Lord Bacon says: "Some men are born 
great." Bishop Marvin was one of them. 

There were several very wise and worthy 
doctors left out. Keener ran well; Sehon 
was slaughtered; Duncan was defeated by a 
speech from his best friend; we were afraid 
to trust Deems with too much authority; 
McAnally was too cold and distant, 



88 REMINISCENCES. 

If one looked round the audience room 
of Carondelet Church, he saw several prom- 
ising young doctors that were coming on, 
This was their first session. Hargrove spoke 
several times. Key spoke once. Any ques- 
tion that concerned the Pacific Coast brought 
Fitzgerald to his feet. He was from the re- 
gion of the setting sun, but his quiet and 
charming humor always suggested the rising 
sun. 

After nearly five weeks we adjourned. 
Over three-fourths of the delegates left the 
city on the same train. The conductor sent 
the following telegram to the dining station: 
" One hundred Methodist preachers on board 
— chickens for dinner." I have been at some 
vast hotels since that day, but I have never 
seen so many fowls baked and stewed and 
fried. 

The next October 3 when I entered the 
pulpit of McKendree Church, I was delight- 
ed to say to myself: " I can stand here four 
years, if these people desire me to do so, 
with Dr. A. L. P. Green for my presiding 
elder." 



XY. 

" I ascexd to the cupola of the magnifi- 
cent State house at Nashville, and take a 
survey of the surrounding country. On 
every side spread out the vast and undula- 
ting fields of grass and corn into the illimita- 
ble distance. A finer agricultural scene was 
never witnessed. A more beautiful land- 
scape, diversified with broad clearings, wav- 
ing crops, tufts of magnolia and poplar, 
shining mansions, withdrawing vales, and 
purple atmosphere it has never been my 
privilege to gaze upon." So writes Dr. Al- 
exander "Winchell in " Sketches of Creation." 
Nashville is built on Silurian limestone, in 
the center of the basin of Middle Tennessee. 

McKendree is one of the oldest and larg- 
est and wealthiest of our Churches. Take 
it all the year round, it is certainly the full- 
est. It is a sort of cathedral for Southern 
Methodism. The pastor cannot but feel the 

importance of his charge. Bishops, connec- 

7 (89) 



90 REMINISCENCES, 

tional officers, State officials, university men, 
visiting magnates, and sundry globe trotters 
are present at every Sunday service. You 
are always preaching to people who never 
heard you before and will never hear you 
again. 

One warm Sunday night I had a hurried 
mental preparation. I was rather ashamed 
of it; so I concluded to scan my audience. 
To the left sat Bishop McTyeire and family. 
To the right was the rector of Christ Church. 
In front sat Bishop Paine with Col. Fite's 
family. Farther out I saw the Governor 
with a junta of his political friends. Still 
farther on, Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the 
New York Christian Advocate. Some pious 
gentleman may exclaim: "What if these 
were present?' 1 Well, brother, suppose you 
come and try it, and then you may possibly 
understand what I mean, and not be disposed 
to misrepresent me. 

During my pastorate four hundred and sev- 
enty-six new members were received. Of 
these, one hundred and seventeen were con- 
verted at the altar in March, 1867. At the al- 



REMINISCENCES. 91 

tar is the best place to get converted and the 
best place to stay converted. Several preach- 
ers' sons were brought in — John "W. Hanner, 
Jr., Wickliffe Weakley, and others. Because 
we had an elderly ecclesiastic whose sons 
were not saints, it was passing into a prov- 
erb that preachers' sons were generally wick- 
ed, if not worthless. The present roll of the 
Tennessee Conference is a complete refuta- 
tion of this slander. Here we have a second 
generation of the Greens, McFerrins, Han- 
ners, Moodys, Cherrys, Sowells, Weakleys, 
Browns, Gilberts, Gabards, Kelleys, Tin- 
nons, Grays, and Erwins. 

The history of literature for the last two 
hundred years will show also what preach- 
ers' families have contributed to the world 
of letters. Here is a list, made out in less 
than one hour. The reader can probably 
make out another of the same length : 

Civil life: Henry Clay, Edward Everett, 
Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and 
others. 

Literature : Swift, Lockhart, Macaulay, 
Sterne, Hazlett, Thackeray, Bancroft, Em- 



92 REMINISCENCES. 

erson, Holmes, Kingsley, Matthew Arnold, 
Hallam, Sismondi, and scores of others. 

Poetry: Young, Cowper, Thomson, Cole- 
ridge, Montgomery, Heber, Tennyson, and 
Lowell. 

Mental philosophy : Stuart, Cudworth, 
Reid, Brown, Boyle, Abercrombie, and 
Bentham. 

Theology : Edwards, Whately, Hall, Light- 
foot, Lowth, Stillingfleet, Wesleys, Spur- 
geons, Beechers, and a list of indefinite 
length. 

Scientists : Agassiz, Berzelius, Boerhaave, 
Encke, Euler, and Linnaeus. 

Women : Trollope, Barbould, Taylor, Car- 
ter, Brontes, Stowe, and others. 

Architecture: Wren. 

Art: Reynolds. 

Heroism : Lord kelson. 

In May, 1870, we went to the General 
Conference in Memphis. Hither came Dr. 
Munsey, in all his glory, greatly to the dis- 
comfort of chronic office seekers. When he 
preached in the opera house all the churches 
in the neighborhood were thinned out. Two 



REMINISCENCES. 93 

other young doctors appeared at this session : 
A. "W. Wilson and A. G. Haygood. They 
were evidently men with " prospects." The 
Irishman from North Carolina was in Mem- 
phis also. He was afflicted with copia ver- 
borum. The women in the front gallery "kept 
the tally " on him. They declared that he 
was on his feet seventeen times one morn- 
ing session. "Speech is silvern; silence is 
golden." " Great is the gift of speech, but 
greater is the gift of silence." 

The race for the episcopacy was between 
J. C. Keener and J. A. Duncan. Dr. Dun- 
can was a singularly gifted man, but Dr. 
Keener was manifestly a ruler. He was 
elected by a small majority, and for twenty- 
eight years has vindicated our judgment. I 
shall never forget the courtesies he has 
shown me at various Annual Conferences. 
He is a superb table talker. The company 
never gets silent and dull where he dines. 
I am glad he wrote " Post Oak Circuit." 

At this General Conference the first step 
was taken toward the establishment of 
fraternal relations between the two great 



94 REMINISCENCES. 

bodies of Methodism, ]STorth and South. 
The unofficial presence of Bishop Janes and 
Dr. Harris formed a very interesting episode 
in our proceedings. 

After we came home Dr. Haygood ar- 
rived, and created our line of periodical lit- 
erature for Sunday schools. He was a regu- 
larly educated man, a tireless worker, and a 
man of brilliant talents. He was so original 
that he always took his own course, and 
generally succeeded. One thing he could 
not and would not tolerate — clerical cos- 
tume. 

When I took charge of McKendree Church 
I ordered all the works on systematic theol- 
ogy within reach — Swiss, German, English, 
and American. The four years were spent 
in reading theology and in making sermons. 
Since then I have contented myself with the 
New Testament. 



XVI. 

The quadrennium at Elm Street was 
probably the happiest and most successful 
period of my ministerial life. The people 
were moderate in their demands and liberal 
with their money. They were intelligent, 
religious, and united. They had bought an 
unfinished house from the Cumberland Pres- 
byterians, on which there was a lien of $54,- 
574. In seven months we paid off the mort- 
gage, finished the building, and paid for it. 
It was dedicated without a collection. Since 
the poor Wesleyans occupied their first 
"church house" in England, who has ever 
heard such a statement? They came out in 
debt, and our people generally have imitated 
their example. The May meetings were in 
progress here at the time, and Bishop Dog- 
gett was invited to come and consecrate our 
church. He did so in his elegant and im- 
pressive way. The next morning I handed 

him seventy-five dollars as a slight acknowl- 

(95) 



96 REMINISCENCES. 

edgment of his valuable services. He re- 
ceived it with his usual pleasant remarks on 
all such occasions. If a great lawyer, in an 
important case, had made so great a speech, 
five hundred dollars would have been a min- 
imum fee. The difference is explained in 
the New Testament. 

We had not worshiped in the new au- 
dience room many weeks before the revival 
influence was apparent. The protracted 
meeting lasted thirty days and nights. One 
hundred sinners were converted at the altar, 
and how many throughout the neighborhood 
I was not able to ascertain. Elm Street soon 
reported the largest Sunday school in the 
Southern Church, and the prayer meetings 
filled the lecture room. 

About this time a youth named E. E. Hoss 
walked into Elm Street one Sunday morning. 
I knew his father well. He was a solid 
farmer in the neighborhood of Washington 
College. His cousin, Landon C. Hoss, w r as 
a classmate of mine. Old Gov. Sevier was 
his great-grandfather. The young man was 
trained at the Ohio Wesley an University, 



REMINISCENCES. 97 

and graduated at Emory and Henry College. 
He was received on trial into the Holston 
Conference in 1869, and staioned at Green- 
ville and Jonesboro. The next fall he was 
read out to the leading appointment in the 
Conference — Knoxville. He came over to 
Nashville to see and hear the old heroes, 
but after preaching once or tw^ice he found 
himself a young hero. I hope we shall have 
the pleasure of meeting him again in some 
future reminiscence. 

In the fall of 1871, in Lebanon, Tenn., on 
Monday afternoon, when Bishop Pierce was 
rushing business with a view to adjourn- 
ment, Dr. D. C. Kelley handed a resolution 
to the secretary. It was read. The sub- 
stance of the resolution was a declaration 
that the time had arrived when a great 
movement should be made to create a uni- 
versity of high grade and large endowment. 
It called for a committee to visit at least 
seven Conferences. "When it was passed 
Bishop Pierce wrote three names on the 
back of it — Green, Young, Kelley. This 
was the grain of mustard seed from which 



98 REMINISCENCES. 

Vanderbilt University grew. Dr. Kelley 
visited and enlisted the North Alabama 
Conference, Dr. Green the Memphis and 
the North Mississippi Conferences, and Dr. 
Young the three Conferences in Arkansas. 
We held a convention in Memphis in Janu- 
ary, 1872. After two days of deliberation 
we determined to build and endow the Cen- 
tral University of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. Five agents were appointed 
to present the claims of the enterprise to 
the people of seven Annual Conferences 
and raise the money. But we are all free to 
confess that the agency and influence of 
Bishop McTyeire and the money and liber- 
ality of the Vanderbilts saved us from a long 
and very doubtful canvass. Commodore 
Vanderbilt's first half million was received 
March 26, 1873. Soon after this he added 
another half million. After the lapse of a 
little time his son, "William H. "Vanderbilt, 
sent us a half million more. Various mem- 
bers of his family have helped us on a small- 
er scale. We are all confident that, in the 
opening year of the twentieth century, our 



REMINISCENCES. 99 

Southern people will show their apprecia- 
tion of all this Northern aid. 

The Louisville General Conference opened 
May, 1874, continued over twenty days, 
and then closed. It was the inconsequential 
session. All the old officers were reelected. 
The proceedings were on a dead level from 
beginning to end, except once; that was on 
the day when we received the fraternal dele- 
gates from the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Two were clergymen, one a military man. 
Dr. Fowler was immense — "like leviathan, 
he stretched out many a rood." I can think 
of no art of popular oratory he had not mas- 
tered. Dr. Hunt was polished and even clas- 
sical; but the argument went straight on, and 
his appeals touched every intellect and heart. 
The military man reminded us of the huge 
animal that always leads the caravan. He 
moves right on, and all the others follow. 
When all had ceased, you would have sup- 
posed that the Southern Methodists were the 
best and cleverest people that dwelt on the 
planet, and that none knew it or appreciated 
it like our brethren north of the Ohio. 
LofC. 



X0O REMINISCENCES. 

Rev. F. E. Pitts died during the session. 
We gave him a funeral at the Walnut Street 
Church befitting a prince; for surely "a 
prince and a great man " had fallen in our 
Israel. 

Dr. A. L. P. Green's noble wife took him 
home before the session closed. He died in 
the summer thereafter. These were his last 
words to me : " Young, if I see you no more, 
it's all right — it's all right." 

On the 10th of May, 1873, I was elected 
Secretary of the Board of Trust of "Vander- 
bilt University, and so my appointments 
read for the next seven years. This was the 
mistake of my life. I am naturally too lym- 
phatic and slow for such an occupation. A 
man like Dr. D. C. Kelley should have had 
the place. 



XVII. 

Fok the first four years of my secretaryship 
the most of my time was spent in the office. 
We were buying' and improving" the Vander- 
bilt campus and putting up the vast and nu- 
merous buildings thereon. To settle with 
every different contractor, to file away their 
returned checks in chronological order, and 
keep a set of books taught one the meaning 
of Charles Lamb's expression : " The desk's 
dead wood." In purchases and improve- 
ments we spent more than one-half million 
of dollars. Besides the Vanderbilt money, 
we had a handsome little " welcome fund/' 
contributed by our generous citizens to show 
how highly they appreciated the Commo- 
dore's selection of Nashville. 

During the seasons of the Annual and 
the District Conferences I made many a de- 
lightful and profitable trip. The presiding 
officer always allowed me to speak. My ob- 
ject was to convince bright and ambitious 

(101) 



102 REMINISCENCES. 

young men of moderate means that they were 
able to pay all the expenses at Yanderbilt 
University, I always wound up by calling 
for a contribution to a " sustentation fund," 
to keep young men from leaving the univer- 
sity for want of money. The contribution 
was made by signing a promissory note for 
one hundred dollars, or more, on which in- 
terest was paid annually at the rate of six 
per cent. It would surprise one to read the 
list of theological students who have re- 
mained three or four years at Vanderbilt on 
this fund. It was loaned to them, not given. 
A large majority were worthy of the favor; 
the others were not. It will be a riskv busi- 
ness to dispute this statement, for my next 
duty after finishing this paragraph is to an- 
swer a letter from one of this unworthy 
class. 

Of course I was always welcome at the 
sessions of those Conferences which origi- 
nally combined to build and endow the uni- 
versity. There were certain brethren who 
always made it a point to give me the best 
hour of the best day for my speech. I am 



REMINISCENCES. 103 

bound to mention Dr. Anson West, Dr. W. 
C. Johnson, Dr. T. Y. Ramsey, Dr. Andrew 
Hunter, Dr. G. A. Dannelly, and Dr. S. H. 
Babcock. Outside of these seven "patroni- 
zing Conferences/' I must mention the name 
of Dr. E. E. Wiley, of Holston, President 
of Emory and Henry College. He knew 
the difference between a first-class college 
and a university with seven departments. 
There were three colleges in the South whose 
presidents did not. They certainly did not 
appreciate the views of the agent of Vander- 
bilt. 

Now, forasmuch as several others have 
taken in hand to set forth the origin of the 
" bond scheme " that saved our Publishing 
House so easily and triumphantly, you will 
allow me to give my recollection. We were 
spending a week at Mr. Dempsey Weaver's, 
several miles out. We were both members 
of the Book Committee. One day at dinner 
the conversation turned on the Franco- 
Prussian war. The war debt of France and 
the " indemnity" demanded by Prussia, cover- 
ing an inconceivable number of francs, had 



104 REMINISCENCES. 

all been funded readily and quickly by the 
people of the French Republic. "Why not 
fund the debt of the Publishing House by 
issuing four per cent bonds?" quoth Mr. 
Weaver. 

At the next meeting of the Book Commit- 
tee the whole matter was thoroughly dis- 
cussed. I was personally interested to the 
amount of $51,000, for my name was on 
that amount of paper in the bank. Mr. 
Weaver's name was on a larger sum. Col. 
Fite was not far behind. Bishop McTyeire 
was present, and expressed the opinion that 
our plan would "hold water." 

So we went up to the General Conference 
in Atlanta, May, 1878. That was a live ses- 
sion from opening to adjournment. We 
had a question of more importance than the 
making of bishops — namely, the saving of 
our Publishing House. It was in debt more 
than $350,000. The moment the "bond 
scheme " was mentioned the Conference was 
in a commotion. The Chair rang me down 
at the end of a fifteen minutes' speech. The 
Virginia gentleman who followed was for 



REMINISCENCES. 105 

liquidation. After some days the brethren 
quieted down, elected a new Book Agent, 
and gave him a Book Committee of great 
financial strength and experience. They 
concluded to let us save the House if we 
could. We did. It cost Dr. McFerrin and 
myself two years of endless travel and in- 
cessant speaking to place the bonds; but we 
placed them. The House has enjoyed a full 
tide of prosperity from that day to this. 

The General Conference of 1878 did more 
than this. It elected Dr. A. W„ Wilson 
Secretary of the Board of Missions. By his 
unique eloquence he stirred the Church 
" from the center all round to the sea " as it 
never had been stirred before. He taught 
scores of young men how to preach. They 
could not plagiarize his sermons, but from 
each they got a compact body of divinity. 
The reason why you cannot appropriate his 
sermon is this : it has no " hedges and ditch- 
es." Where does introduction end and ar- 
gumentation begin? And where does argu- 
mentation end and peroration begin? 

Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald was elected to the 

8 



106 REMINISCENCES. 

editorship of the Christian Advocate. In a 
few years the subscription list reached twen- 
ty-five thousand. The editor was Addison 
and Steele combined. He added the wit of 
the latter to the graceful rhetoric of the for- 
mer. If you went to his office and sat down, 
he acted exactly as if he had nothing in the 
world to do but to entertain his visitors. 
Deliver me from that gentleman who goes 
through the world with a watch in his hand! 

Dr. Cunnyngham was returned to the office 
of the Sunday School Department, there to 
pour out sacred literature as from a cornu- 
copia. 

"While in Atlanta wife and I had rooms at 
a first-class hotel. Oar bill was $130. Of- 
fering to pay it, I was informed that Mr. In- 
man had settled it for me. The Inmans 
were from Dandridge, East Tennessee. 




-: , 




W. G. E. CUNNYNGHAM. 



XYITI. 

I still remained in the Vanderbilt office, 
but the affairs of the University were so set- 
tled and prosperous that they did require all 
my time. The President of the Board was 
more than willing that I should assist Dr. 
McFerrin for a year or two. I tried my 
"bond speech" before the new Book Com- 
mittee. Of course Mr. Weaver's subscrip- 
tion was in the lead of all others. The old 
Doctor tested his "bond speech'" before the 
Tennessee Conference. 

The Doctor and I then journeyed together 
to the large cities. At Louisville Rev. H. 
C. Morrison and Mr. John Carter rendered 
us invaluable assistance. We did not know 
that Brother Morrison was the future finan- 
cier of the Church, who should rake its 
treasures together and pay its enormous 
Church debts. Commend me to the man 
that can do things. Some men can talk 

fluently on all subjects suggested by earth 

(107) 



108 REMINISCENCES. 

or sea or sky, but can accomplish nothing. 

"To-morrow" would be a proper name for 

the whole crowd. 

At Richmond Dr. Lafferty had "norated ' 

us in his characteristic style. The editors 

of some Church papers have no talent for 

newspaper literature at all. They can write 

animadversions and tirades on all subjects 

from "shoe leather to the solar system," but 

have no genius for journalism. Lafferty has 

an immense literary endowment. Each one 

of the sixteen figures of rhetoric is at his 

command; but when he compared me to Og, 

the King of Bashan, he stretched one of 

them to its utmost tension — hyperbole. The 

Doctor is not the most serious man on the 

Potomac. He thinks: 

A little nonsense now and then 
Is relished by the wisest men. 

Bishop Doggett presided. At the close 
of my speech silence prevailed. I threw off 
sentence after sentence, appeal after appeal; 
but there was no response. At last the 
Chair discovered the trend of thought and 
determination, and came down with five hun- 



REMIXISCENCES. 109 

dred dollars. Then the signatures came in 
thick and fast. 

Dr. John E. Edwards chaperoned us 
everywhere. The rays of the sun were 
never brighter than his intellect and heart. 
And grand old Tom Branch feasted us on 
six-o'clock dinners and bought our bonds. 

After a while the Doctor and I concluded 
to separate. He took the territory east of 
the Mississippi River, and I took the west. 
In less than two years we met Fait accom- 
pli. 

On the 18th of August, 1880, I had the 
pleasure of leading to the matrimonial altar 
Mrs. Anna Green Hunter, youngest child of 
Dr. A. L. P. Green. The ceremony was 
performed by Bishop McTyeire in the pres- 
ence of every member of the Green family. 
After spending the remainder of the sum- 
mer in Canada, we returned ready for the 
Conference session. 

My great desire was to settle down in the 
pastoral work again, and perform its daily 
and quiet duties, I was tired of stare and 
pressure. Bishop Pair^e stationed me at Fos- 



110 REMINISCENCE®. 

ter Street Church, out of which has grown 
the large and beautiful McFerrin Memorial. 
The next fall Bishop McTyeire put me in 
the pulpit of West End Church, where I was 
standing when the General Conference of 
1882 opened in May. I am tempted to say 
that I enjoyed Foster Street most, for there 
the people were satisfied with straightfor- 
ward orthodoxy; but at West End they in- 
sisted on the fact that the nominative case 
must govern the verb in number and person. 
Comprenez vousf 

The session of 1882 was held in Nashville. 
I was chairman of the committee on homes, 
and here bear testimony that I had no trouble 
to find hospitable entertainment for every 
member, clerical and lay. The bills of those 
who stayed at hotels were paid by some very 
busy professional man or some countess 
dowager who was not taking company. I 
take pleasure in stating these facts, espe- 
cially since they say that Southern hospital- 
ity is dying out. Richmond in 1886 fell 
behind Nashville in no respect whatever. 

Toward the close of the session in 1882 



REMIXISCEXCES. HI 

Dr. A. W. Wilson, Dr. J. C. Granbery, Dr. 
Linus Parker, and Dr. P. K. Hargrove were 
elected to the episcopacy. Wilson was 
taken from the Mission Board, Granbery 
from Vanderbilt University, Parker from 
an editorship, and Hargrove from a presid- 
ing eldership. Dr. P. A. Young was elect- 
ed Secretary of the Board of Missions; Dr. 
D. C. Kelley, Treasurer; Dr. J. B. McFer- 
rin was returned to the Book Agency, Dr. 
O. P. Fitzgerald to the Christian Advocate, 
and Dr. Cunnyngham to the Sunday School 
Department. Dr. Kelly and myself found 
that the high-water mark reached by Dr. 
Wilson was $103,000. We ran it up a little 
distance each year until we reached nearly 
$223,000. That was honor enough, and of 
course we were in danger of defeat. 

Dr. Thomas O. Summers, Secretary of the 
Conference, died during the session. He 
had occupied that position since the Louis- 
ville Convention in 1845, so far as I now 
recollect. He had been the President of our 
Board of Missions since 1866. During his 
varied editorial career he sat on the tri- 



112 REMINISCENCES. 

pod of the Charleston Christian Advocate, 
the Nashville Christian Advocate, the Sun- 
day School Visitor, and the Quarterly Re- 
view. His last article for the Quarterly Re- 
view was on foreign missions. Few preach- 
ers have ever received a more imposing fu- 
neral. Since his death his manuscripts have 
been gathered together by Dr. Tigert, and a 
complete body of divinity has been pub- 
lished. Chancellor Garland succeeded him 
as President of the Board of Missions. 

During my term of office some long jour- 
neys were required. If I made a trip that was 
unusually strange and interesting, new and in- 
structive, or successful and profitable, I al- 
ways wrote it up at the time. Some of these 
manuscripts may be printed for the benefit 
of my readers. They are the best " reminis- 
cences " of places and people that were seen 
at the time. 






\# 




%■ ll 



/ 



o 




^V.D. 




^fxAvoumM 



MISSIONARY SECRETARIES.} 



XIX. 

A glance at my predecessors in the Mis- 
sion Rooms will be afforded. Dr. E. W. 
Sehon was a Virginian, large, portly, and 
graceful to the last degree. If you had 
passed him on the Strand in London, you 
would have stopped and inquired his name, 
nationality, and profession. He was fond of 
tailor-made suits, fine carriages, and late 
dinners. The Doctor was always ready to 
speak. He spoke with ease, fluency, and 
power, but said nothing new or profound. 
Forasmuch as he remained in office for a 
long time, I infer that the results of his la- 
bor were satisfactory. The last time I saw 
his shining face he was presiding elder of 
the Louisville District. It is a dull bishop 
that does not know how to let us down 
gracefully. 

Dr. W. E. Munsey was elected by the 

Board of Missions to succeed Dr. Sehon. 

He was the mere fragment of a man, but he 

was a blazing fragment. His person was 

(113) 



114 REMINISCENCES. 

inconsequential, his dress abominable, his 
manners simple; but he spoke "with the 
tongue of men and angels." He said nothing 
in the pulpit or on the platform that edified 
or instructed cultivated men with practical 
minds; yet they ran in multitudes to hear 
him, and would do so again and again. 
u Sound and fury" — but did you not love to 
hear the sound and see the fury? The Gen- 
eral Conference of 1870 did not reelect him. 
He did not know how to manage the affairs 
and details of his office. He died on his 
knees at home, and went to heaven. The 
publication of his sermons was a hit of Bish- 
op Keener's. We have no book of sermons 
that has gone through so many editions. 

Munsey was succeeded by Dr. John B. 
McFerrin. He had been missionary to the 
Indians, circuit preacher, presiding elder, 
city pastor, editor, Book Agent; so when he 
entered the office he knew all the machinery 
of the Church "by heart." The "old Doc- 
tor" served the Board of Missions eight 
years, and was sent back in 1878 to the 
book agency. In this office he died. 



REMINISCENCES. H5 

Dr. A. "W". Wilson preceded me. Of him 
I have spoken and written so often that it is 
not necessary for me to add anything on 
this page. I am glad that he has returned, 
tsafe and sound, from his third visit to our 
Conferences in the Orient. I do not wonder 
that the brethren are anxious for him to come 
again. 

The treasurer and myself had our offices 
in the Publishing House. There was noth- 
ing between us but a thin plank partition. 
I am happy to state that no inharmonious 
word ever divided us. We had to confront 
this statement: "More money or returned 
missionaries." So we banded ourselves to- 
gether for more money and more mission- 
aries. Here is the result. I quote from Dr. 
P. A. Peterson's " Handbook of Southern 
Methodism:" 1881-82, $103,901; 1882-83, 
$160,272; 1883-84, $183,692; 1884-85, $191,- 
600; 1885-86, $222,127. New missionaries 
were sent out in proportion to the increase 
of our funds. I beg- your pardon — at one 
time Ave sent them out a little more rapidly. 
Dr. Kelley and myself put our official signa- 



116 REMINISCENCES. 

tures and our personal indorsement on $120,- 
000, borrowed from the American National 
Bank. 

This paragraph would not have been 
written but for the enlightenment of one 
pair of eyes. I hope it will be memorized, 
and that confession will be made. 

In my declining years, when I think of 
the long trips we made, traveling by day 
and by night, to reach at least fifteen Con- 
ferences each year, I am amazed that mortal 
flesh and blood could endure such a tum- 
bled-up existence for four years. 

On the long route from Maryland to Mex- 
ico, zigzaging through the territory of the 
Church, you meet wth a great many good 
and interesting people that memory will not 
let die. Who does not recollect Magruder, 
of Baltimore? Was there ever a layman 
that made himself more useful? He could 
sing, lead the family and the congregation 
in prayer, superintend the Sunday school, 
preside in the stewards' meeting or the State 
Sunday School Convention, take the lead in 
the District or the Annual Conference, and 



REMINISCENCES. 117 

speak with ease and power in the legislative 

department of the Church. When I lifted 

a collection in the Baltimore Conference I 

was sure of success if Magruder was there. 

And so I could write on to the end of the 

chapter, 

But no speed of ours avails 
To hunt up his shining trails. 

One Sunday morning, just at the break of 
day, our train ran into Trinidad, Southern 
Colorado. I looked at my continuous 
through ticket, and then thought of the 
commandment. Instantly I determined not 
to travel on Sunday. At ten o'clock I was 
in a class meeting, and at eleven I was in 
the pulpit of a beautiful new church of ours. 
At one o'clock I dined with the pastor and 
a layman of his congregation. After dinner 
the talk began. The layman's story was 
this: He had made $3,500 laying rails on 
the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Pe rail- 
road. With this he bought " a bunch " of 
cattle, and turned them on a cheap " ranch." 
Once a year he had a " round up," and made 

a " cut out" sufficient for his support. The 
9 



118 REMINISCENCES. 

cattle chewed the grass and he " got rich." 
Last week he had sold the whole "bunch'" 
for $300,000 cash. All this was done in five 
years. At the close of this interesting nar- 
rative I said to him : " Brother, this church 
where we worshiped to-day owes one thou- 
sand dollars. Please to meet me at the 
train to-morrow at ten o'clock, and tell me 
that it does not owe one cent." The next 
morning he was there promptly with the 
good news — he had paid it all. The name is 
Lenhart. 

At the close of my term of office I did not 
expect reelection. I had set my heart on a 
trip to the Orient, and was not disappointed. 
I delivered the keys of the Missionary De- 
partment to Rev. I. G. John, D.D., of Tex- 
as. There have been several worthy asso- 
ciates and successors: Dr. A. Coke Smith, 
Dr. W. H. Potter, Dr. H. C. Morrison, Dr. 
W, K. Lambuth, and Dr. J. H. Pritchett. 



XX. 

The General Conference of 1886 met in 
Richmond, Va. Hospitality abounded. Ev- 
ery man thought he had the best home. 
The trustees gave the audience room of Cen- 
tenary Church for our daily sessions. Visit- 
ors from all parts of our Church, Xorth and 
South, were introduced. Even some distin- 
guished evangelists looked in on us, and en- 
lightened our minds with a sermon or two. 
They took no collection 1 

The vote for bishops resulted in the elec- 
tion of Dr. C. B. Gallowav, Dr. W. W. 
Duncan, Dr. E. E. Hendrix, and Dr. J. S. 
Key. There are no advantages for mental 
training and high culture in this country 
that these brethren have not enjoyed from 
their childhood. Galloway graduated at the 
University of Mississippi; Duncan, at Ran- 
dolph-Macon, Virginia; Key, at Oxford, G-a.; 
and Hendrix, at two or three institutions. 

To which they have all added the unwritten 

(119) 



120 REMINISCENCES. 

advantages of foreign travel. Their fathers 
were all gentlemen of abundant means, and 
lavished their money on the education of 
their sons. Shylock keeps his shining ore 
in his bags and boxes, and his sons are bump- 
kins. 

About the middle of the quadrennium that 
closed in Richmond we met in Baltimore to 
hold the Centennial Methodist Conference. 
Delegates were present from every branch 
of Methodism in North America. I have 
seen the Congress of the United States, the 
parliamentary bodies of Great Britain, Aus- 
tria, and Norway; but a body of grander- 
looking men than the members of the Cen- 
tennial Conference I have never beheld. Of 
course we met in December, 1884; the 
memorable Christmas Conference was held 
in December, 1784* We met in Baltimore; 
the historic Christmas Conference was held 
in Baltimore. 

The Wesleyans celebrated the year 1839 
as a centenary year. It had been one hun- 
dred years since our religious " movement ' 
began among the poor people of London 



REMINISCENCES. 121 

and England. Our people in the United 
States and Canada participated very gener- 
ally. Centenary Circuits and Centenary 
Churches may be found all over the connec- 
tion. I was a boy of fifteen, and still attend- 
ing the Presbyterian Church, but I shall 
never forget a book that the Methodist local 
preacher gave me that year. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church observed 
1866 as a centenary year. It marked the 
one hundredth year since the religious move- 
ment called Methodism was introduced in 
]N^orth America. The war was just over, 
and of course the Southern brethren had no 
part or lot in the celebration. 

The resolution that finally called together 
the Centennial Methodist Conference, De- 
cember 9-17, 1881, originated with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South. In due time 
all the other branches wheeled into line. 
This Conference marked the epoch (Decem- 
ber, 1784) when our Church was organized 
as an independent body, separate from the 
Church of England and all other " entan- 
gling alliances." Then we laid away all the 



122 REMINISCENCES. 

prayer books that remained among us, and 
ceased to read the morning and evening 
service of the Anglican Church. Then our 
people entered upon their God-given work 
as an efficient and unique organization. 

As I now recollect them, the ablest dis- 
course was the opening sermon by Bishop 
P. S. Foster; the most eloquent essays were 
those read by Dr. J. H. Vincent and Prof. 
C. J.- Little; the most solid and practical, 
by Dr. Anson West and Dr. J. E. Evans. 
At the close of Prof. Little's paper it was 
difficult to get the body settled down to 
business. IsTobody seemed to have perfect 
command of himself. But did not we sing: 

Together let us sweetly live, 

Together let us die, 
And each a starry crown receive, 

And reign above the sky. 

I am surprised that so many intelligent 
public men labor under the impression that 
they can read eloquently before an audience. 
I have heard only two : Dr. Philip P. Neely, 
of Alabama, and Prof. Charles J. Little, of 
Pennsylvania. Those of us who had been 



REMIX1SCEXCES. 123 

selected to read essays and make addresses 
were notified weeks beforehand to send our 
manuscripts to Baltimore. "We did so. Di- 
rectly tlie proof sheets came back for us to 
examine. Surely after all this it was not 
impossible to "hold forth." 

Dr. J. M. Buckley, of New York, was 
probably the most versatile man on the 
floor. As a debater he had made an im- 
mense reputation in the Ecumenical Confer- 
ence of London. If the Doctor had lived a 
few generations back, he might have been 
the rival of Charles James Fox. 

The social entertainments were delightful, 
notably the one at Dr. John F. Goucher's. 
The old heroes were all there: Dr. McFer- 
rin, Dr. Trimble, and the like. The North- 
ern bishops are coffee drinkers and prandial 
talkers. Dr. Samuel Johnson and Lord Ma- 
caulay might have held their own. I doubt 
it. These entertainments were all concluded 
with prayer. 

During the summer of 1886 I had the 
pleasure of preaching to the congregation of 
the Park Avenue Church, near my home in 



124: REMINISCENCES. 

Nashville. Those were happy and quiet 
months. This reminiscence leaves me on the 
western shore of the melancholy and vora- 
cious sea. I step on board the Umbria in 
'New York harbor. I may be tempted to 
describe some of the places and sketch some 
of the persons we saw on this ten months' 
tour through Europe, Egypt, and Asia Mi- 
nor. 



XXI. 

Adieu, adieu! my native shore 
Fades o'er the waters blue. 

At this distance of time and place allow 
me to return hearty thanks to Bishop Hen- 
drix and the presiding elders of the Tennes- 
see Conference for giving me a nominal ap- 
pointment, that I might gratify a lifelong de- 
sire for foreign travel.* 

When I lived in Missouri I prepared a 
course of lectures on the " Reformers in 
Chronological Order " — John Wickliffe in 
the fourteenth century; John Huss and Sa- 
vonarola in the fifteenth century; Martin 
Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox in the 
sixteenth century; and John Wesley in the 
eighteenth. All these great men, except 
the last, sprang from the bosom of the Ro- 
man Church. They were all scholars of 
the highest grade for the ages in which they 

*Read "Twenty Thousand Miles." 

(125) 



126 REMINISCENCES. 

lived. All had the gift of eloquence, except 
two, and these were fluent and heroic talk- 
ers. While we may detect one or two glar- 
ing faults in each of these men, we are sure 
that braver disciples of Christ never lived 
or stormed or died. 

While reading up and preparing notes for 
these lectures I became intensely interested 
in every fact connected with the Reformers. 
So you may judge how their homes and the 
scenes of their labors impressed me while 
we were in foreign lands. Our first object 
was to see all the " Bible lands/' from the 
banks of the ]STile, where Moses was taken 
from the ark of bulrushes, to the Isle of Pat- 
mos, where John had the revelations. I^ext 
to this we wanted to visit those countries 
where the reformed religion prevails. 

At Oxford there are twenty-four colleges 
and four halls. In three of these we felt a 
special interest. Baliol was one. John 
Wickliffe was appointed head master of this 
college before he was forty years of age. 
Here he began to read and study the whole 
Bible, in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, 



REMINISCENCES. 127 

with a view to his future translation into the 
English of that day. The result is well 
known. He began to diverge so far from 
the holy Roman Church that he w x as ordered 
to appear at Lambeth Palace and defend 
himself before the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. He returned to Baliol a victor. He 

ml 

was summoned before the primate a second 
time, but defended himself with such learn- 
ing and logic that he returned to Oxford 
victorious. The scholars elected him head 
master of Canterbury Hall. The Sovereign 
Pontiff now interfered. On his third trial 
at Lambeth he was convicted of twenty- 
four opinions that were heretical and four- 
teen that were erroneous. So he was driven 
from Oxford to his " living ' : at Lutter- 
worth. Here he preached to his parish- 
ioners for several years, and finished the 
first translation of the whole Bible into Eng- 
lish. In Madame Tussaud's gallery, and in 
the group of celebrities assembled around 
the queen, you will see the well-known 
figure of John "Wickliffe. The righteous 
shall be held in everlasting remembrance. 



128 REMINISCENCES. 

WicklifFe is called " the morning star of the 
Reformation." 

A Bohemian prince married a princess of 
England. She understood the doctrines of 
Wickliffe, and was friendly to them. This 
encouraged John Hnss and Jerome of 
Prague in the work of reformation. Tens 
of thousands revolted from the doctrines and 
usages of the Roman Catholic Church. Fi- 
nally Huss was brought before the Council 
of Constance and condemned to be burned. 
Our main object in spending a day at Prague 
was to see the great picture of " John Huss 
standing before the Council of Constance." 
It is numbered among the largest and most 
celebrated paintings on earth. It was ex- 
hibited in all the principal cities of Eu- 
rope, and then purchased by the Bohe- 
mians for eighty thousand florins. The fig- 
ures are all the size of life. The Emperor 
Sigismond is in the chair, and Huss is stand- 
ing before him in the attitude of an orator. 
With me this work of art ranks next to 
Raphael's " Transfiguration." 

Florence, in Italy, is supposed to be the 




STATUE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 



REMINISCENCES. 129 

most cultivated city in the world. What is 
known as the " revival of learning* " in mod- 
ern times began in Florence, under the pat- 
ronage and rule of the Medici family. Here 
Savonarola, the invincible reformer, lived. 
They show you the monastery to which he 
belonged, the little room in which he stud- 
ied and slept. On the public square, and 
right in front of the old capitol of the Tus- 
can Republic, a magnificent marble fountain 
throws the water high into the air. It 
stands on the spot where Savonarola was ex- 
ecuted, in 1498. In the audience hall of the 
building has been erected the unsurpassed 
statue of the Italian Protestant. The mar- 
tyrs of one age are the heroes of all the fol- 
lowing. Xot a penny to keep geniuses alive, 
but pounds to build their monuments. 

Of course we stopped in Wittenburg, Ger- 
many. A tourist says " the village is three 
feet deep with Martin Luther." Such has 
been his influence over the human race that 
an enthusiastic admirer calls this " Luther's 
world." He is the last one of the five great 
men of history : Moses, Aristotle, Julius 



130 REMINISCENCES. 

Csesar, St. Paul, and Martin Luther. After 
his literary and law course at the University 
at Erfurt, he suddenly became a monk and 
entered the Augustinian monastery at Wit- 
tenberg. When Frederick the Wise found- 
ed the new university there he selected Lu- 
ther for the chair of philosophy. The learned 
and eloquent young Augustinian was only 
twenty-five. His memorable visit to Rome 
was made in his twenty-seventh year. The 
ninety-five theses were nailed to the door of 
the great church in Wittenberg in his thirty- 
fourth year. ]STow, for a while, it was one 
man against the world. Your valet de place 
never tires of showing and telling: " This 
is the monastery where he lived, and here 
is the large and beautiful room w T herein he 
studied and translated the Scriptures into 
German; this is the new university, where 
he lectured, and where the Reformation ac- 
tually began; this is ' Luther's tree/ which 
marks the spot where he publicly burned the 
papal bull;" and finally he shows you the 
first Protestant church building on earth. 
The result is well known. 



REMINISCENCES. 131 

It may surprise some people to learn that 
John Calvin was a Frenchman of good con- 
dition in life. At the age of twenty he was 
considered the most learned man in Europe. 
At the age of twenty-five he published his 
" Institutes." ~No religious book, except 
the Bible, has ever been quoted so frequent- 
ly. In Geneva is the massive residence in 
which he lived, the church where he wor- 
shiped, the pulpit from which he preached, 
and the pulpit chair in which he sat. The 
cemetery contains an unmarked grave sup- 
posed to be Calvin's. 

In Edinburgh I always attend John 
Knox's church. His dwelling house is near 
by. It is a quaint old structure. I suppose 
it might bring twenty dollars a month. His 
monument is one of the highest in Europe. 
John Knox is the founder of Presbyterian- 
ism in Scotland. His fame will endure to 
the "last syllable of recorded time." 

In London we worshiped in City Road 

Chapel, wherein John Wesley preached at 

five in the morning. His home adjoins. It 

is a narrow house three stories high. It 
10 



132 REMINISCENCES. 

might be rented for twenty-five dollars a 
month. His grave is in the rear of the chap- 
el. Millions of people to-day believe the 
Scriptures as John Wesley expounded them. 
In my next you may be introduced to 
some titled people — " great folks." 



XXII. 

Late at night we were all on the prome- 
nade deck of the steamer enjoying the lights 
along the shores of Crete. With no intro- 
duction an intelligent Englishman began a 
conversation with me which lasted for an 
hour or two. He was about the size of my 
good friend Mark Cockrill, of Nashville, 
but was not quite so well dressed. I soon 
discovered that he had been everywhere, had 
seen everybody, and knew everything about 
the British Empire. I noticed a group of 
ladies around his wife. On the way down 
to our staterooms I said to Mrs. Young: 
" We shall be certain to find that this Eng- 
lishman is a personage." 

We stopped a few days in Alexandria; 
they passed on up the Xile. At Cairo we 
met again. We were arriving at Shepherd's 
Hotel; they were on the instant of depart- 
ing for Jerusalem by way of the Suez Canal 

and Joppa. Weeks after this, on our ar- 

(133) 



134 REMINISCENCES. 

rival in the Holy City, they gave us a hearty 
welcome to our apartments in the Mediter- 
ranean Hotel. On the expedition to Jeri- 
cho, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, the Eng- 
lishman and his wife rode a donkey each. 
The lady had a stalwart Arab attendant 
on foot. Why the Greek priest also was 
along I have never been able to learn. We 
all enjoyed the hospitalities of the immense 
Russian convent on the plains of the Jordan. 
The American party sang the gospel hymns 
of Moody and Sankey. 

Inferring that w r e took an interest in re- 
ligious matters and movements, this Eng- 
lish gentleman invited me to go with him 
to Bethlehem and see his ophthalmic institu- 
tion. "This, gentleman is a doctor, and 
has charge of a hospital for the cure of the 
blind," said I to myself. Whereupon he 
handed me a pamphlet, which gave me to 
understand that Rt. Hon. Sir Edmund Lech- 
mere, Bart, M. P., had donated this institu- 
tion, and its entire support, to the English 
Church Mission on Mount Zion. After 
a while I called his valet and showed him the 



REMINISCENCES. 135 

name on the title-page. " It is Sir Edmund 
you have been traveling with all this time." 
So a British baronet gives thousands of 
pounds a year for the missionary enter- 
prises of the Church of England! If a 
wealthy American Christian gives a thou- 
sand dollars a year regularly, we think he is 
doing wonders. I know one. There may 
be others. 

On the last day, during our second visit 
to the Holy City, a Greek priest came into 
our little parlor and invited us to accompany 
him through the hospitals and schools of the 
Greek Church. We did so, and were great- 
ly interested. Finally we entered a large 
apartment richly furnished. It was evident- 
ly a throne room. Directly we saw one 
hundred full-robed priests in a broad cor- 
ridor in front of us — fifty on one side, fifty 
on the other. The patriarch of Jerusalem 
entered, and was seated on the throne. We 
were introduced, and the conversation lasted 
for an hour or more. He wanted to know 
all about our great country that was " so 
large and so rich," and whether Protestantism 



136 REMINISCENCES. 

was really the prevailing religion. He then 
gave us a short sketch of the Greek Church, 
and did not omit to mention that he had 
fourteen archiepiscopal dioceses under his 
jurisdiction. A three-course luncheon fol- 
lowed. The vessels were all of gold, silver, 
or Sevres China. The plates and goblets 
blazed with jewels. The patriarch informed 
us that no habit or custom in the East had 
changed since the days of Job. " True, O 
king! ' I suppose that we shall never have 
an explanation of this interview, unless it is 
this: A man with world-wide intelligence 
never loses an opportunity to learn about 
the earth and the man that is on it. He is 
like a scholar who ransacks a library to rec- 
tify a syllable. 

On our first arrival in Berlin we stopped 
at a hotel on the Linden. We were not 
pleased. This took air from some of the 
servants. On the third morning we received 
a letter signed: "Frau Yon Shaak." She 
could make us comfortable at 203 Frederick 
Street at twenty-seven marks a day for five 
people. She certainly did. One evening at 



REMINISCENCES. 137 

dinner she told us about a delightful inter- 
view she had with Victoria, mother of the 
present Emperor. On the old lady's birth- 
day she received a costly present from the 
old kaiser. At another dinner she intro- 
duced us to her brother-in-law, Baron Yon 
Shaak. So I determined to find out where 
we were stopping. I invited the frau to 
come to my room for a final settlement. She 
did so, and the bill was paid in gold. 

I said to her: "Madam, who are you? ,J 
She answered: U I am the Countess Von 
Shaak. I began life a court lady in the 
family of the old kaiser. My husband is 
Baron Von Shaak, a general in the German 
army. He was degraded for drunkenness, 
and is now employed in the customhouse of 
Xew York. For the support of my family 
I have converted this home into a pension ." 

" But, madam, you say that the titled 
people of Germany and the common people 
never mix any more than oil and water. Have 
we met none but titled people at your ta- 
ble?" 

"Xot one." 



138 REMINISCENCES. 

"Then why are we plain American peo- 
ple here at your solicitation?" 

"O, you Americans are born lords." She 
and her daughters spoke English and French 
with fluency. 

On my return, in the fall of 1887, Bishop 
McTyeire and Bishop Wilson were partial 
enough to place me on the Nashville Dis- 
trict. This suited my age exactly. The 
Methodist preachers do not expect so much 
of their presiding elders (in the way of 
preaching) as they did in my early days. I 
was continued on this appointment until the 
fall of 1890. After this I journeyed through 
Spain, Russia, and Scandinavia. When I 
returned Bishop Wilson gave me another de- 
lightful appointment, Carroll Street Church. 
Here I remained until I concluded to spend 
another summer in Europe. Since then the 
regency of Belmont College has occupied 
my time. I am too fond of private life and 
literary employments. 

There are other reminiscences to be writ- 
ten, but they will not be in chronological 
order. 



XXIII. 

Forasmuch as I entered the Christian 
ministry in 1845, the epoch of the Louis- 
vile Convention, they say that I should de- 
vote one chapter to our publishing interests. 

The Western Methodist was established in 
Xashville in 1833 by Rev. Lewis Garrett 
and Rev. John Xewland Maffitt. This was 
a private enterprise without much backing 
of any sort. The Soitthivestem Christian 
Advocate was established in 1836 by the 
General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. Rev. Thomas Stringfield 
w r as elected editor, Xo man in the 
South was quite so w 7 ell prepared for 
this line of work. Then came Dr. John B. 
McFerrin from 1840 to 1858. This gentle- 
man succeeded at everything he undertook. 
At one time he was assisted by Dr. M. M. 
Henkle; at another time, by Dr. C. B. Par- 
sons. The paper adopted its present name 

in 1816. The General Conference of 1858 

(139) 



140 REMINISCENCES. 

elected a young man to our ecclesiastical 
tripod — H. N. McTyeire, D.D. It was 
soon discovered that the Christian Advocate 
had an opinion on every subject, expressed 
in a style that reminded one of Emerson's 
" English Traits." Next came Dr. T. O. 
Summers. He was continued on the paper 
from 1866 to 1878. He had no assistant and 
no trouble, except the difficulty of finding as 
much literary work as he could do. We 
who are slow and indolent kept away from 
his office. Then Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald edit- 
ed the paper from 1878 to 1890. For a while 
he was assisted by Dr. W. A. Candler. The 
General Conference of 1890 elected two ed- 
itors, Dr. E. E. Hoss and Dr. E. M. Bounds. 
The first of these remains, and will be like- 
ly to remain as long as we want the rival to 
Dr. Buckley, of JSTew York. My excellent 
friend Dr. Boswell has also been on the 
paper for more than six years. 

Our Sunday school periodicals have been 
edited by the following brethren: Drs. Sum- 
mers, Haygood, Cunnyngham, Kirkland, and 
Atkins. The present assistant is Dr. Beaty; 



REMINISCENCES. 141 

the former ones, Dr. Lyons and John L. 
Kirby. 

The editors of our Quarterly Review have 
been: Dr. Bascom, Dr. Doggett, Dr. Hin- 
ton, Dr. Summers, Dr. Harrison, and Dr. 
Tigert. 

We have published two literary period- 
icals for ladies, The Companion and the 
Home Circle. The one was edited by Dr. 
Henkle; the other, by Dr. Huston. 

Our missionary periodicals have been pro- 
duced by the incumbents of the mission 
office. 

The Epworth Era has been edited by Dr. 
Steel and Dr. Du Bose. 

From 1815 to 1854 Dr. John Early was 
the Book Agent of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. His work was all done by 
contract. Dr. Edward Stevenson, located 
at Louisville, Ky., was his assistant. The 
Publishing House was located at Nashville 
in 1854. Dr. Edward Stevenson and Dr. P. 
A. Owen were elected Agents. Neither of 
them knew what is meant nowadays hy pub- 
lishing a book. Owen resigned for a little 



142 REMINISCENCES. 

while, and Dr. J. E. Evans, of Georgia, took 
his place. In 1858 Dr. J. B. McFerrin was 
elected Book Agent, and continued in office 
eight years. Rev. Richard Abbey, as financial 
agent, was his partner. Dr. A. H. Redford 
was made Book Agent in 1866, and contin- 
ued in office for twelve consecutive years. 
He built the present Publishing House. In 
1878 Dr. McFerrin was again elected, and 
remained in office until his death. Col. L. 
D. Palmer was his business manager. 

The present Agents went into office in 
the year 1887. The time of their adminis- 
tration may be truthfully called "the golden 
age " of our Publishing House. We are 
now worth nearly one million of dollars. 
Barbee & Smith have paid the superannuates 
$167,500. 

The Book Committee is composed of thir- 
teen gentlemen. Some of us have been in 
our places regularly for more than a quar- 
ter of a century. J^ot one of us has ever 
received a dollar for his services. Not one 
of us has ever borrowed a dollar from the 
House. 




D. M. SMITH. 



REMINISCENCES. 143 

I have written this brief reminiscence at a 
single sitting, and purely from memory. I 
have purposely omitted the name of one 
glorified personage, simply from the fact that 
I do not call to mind the exact name of 
the office he filled. 

If you will look over the long list of con- 
nectional officers herein mentioned, you will 
probably be surprised at the number who 
were elevated to the episcopacy. 



XXIY. 

""Who is my neighbor?' Steam and te- 
legraphy are answering this question rapidly. 
I can leave my front gate in Nashville, and 
in less than twenty days of the easiest and 
most delightful travel I can enter the Jaffa 
Gate of the city of Jerusalem. The dis- 
tance is nearly eight thousand miles. 

The Holy Land is a little strip of country 
on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean 
Sea. It is about the size of Wales, a prov- 
ince of the British Isles. Norman McLeod, 
the great Scotch preacher, went to the top 
of Mizpeh, where the prophet Samuel spent 
most of his time. He looked westward, and 
saw the ships from the Mediterranean land- 
ing at Joppa and Cassarea. He looked 
eastward, and saw the strata in the rocks 
of the mountains of Moab. To the north 
the ruins of Dan were plainly in view; to 
the south, the ruins of Beersheba. It was a 

clear Syrian atmosphere through which he 
(144) 



REMINISCENCES. 145 

looked. There is nothing like it on earth. 
It is now demonstrated that Moses could 
have seen every mile of the Promised Land 
from the top of Pisgah. 

Monotheism originated, or was revealed, 
in this little, rugged, desolated region. The 
revelation came not to a scholar, or a philos- 
opher, or a savant of any grade, but to an 
Oriental sheik sitting in his tent and listen- 
ing to his flocks and herds, his menservants 
and his maidservants. According to Jona- 
than Edwards, the whole human race had 
apostatized into idolatry when Abraham 
was called to the land of Canaan. Since 
his day all orthodox people have said: "I 
believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth. " 

There are five cities in the world that are 
called "holy cities:' Benares for the Hin- 
doos, Jerusalem for Jews and Christians, 
Mecca for the Mohammedans, Rome for the 
Roman Catholics, and Moscow for the Greek 
Church. There is not a sect of Christians 
on earth that does not believe in the reli- 
gious virtue of a pilgrimage, with the single 
11 



146 REMINISCENCES. 

exception of Protestants. They believe that 
" the jnst shall live by faith." 

The following is the itinerary of a full 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land: 1. Worship 
in the Church of the Annunciation at Naza- 
reth. 2. Attend service in the Church of 
the Nativity at Bethlehem and drink a small 
glass of wine. 3. Go to the pilgrims' bath- 
ing place and wash in the Jordan. 4. Wind 
up your devotions in the Church of the 
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where reli- 
gious services have been held every day 
and every night since the time of Constan- 
tine the Great. After this the pilgrims 
travel straight to heaven, and never halt. 

Away back, in distant antiquity a Jebusite 
chief fortified the present Mount Zion. A 
settlement grew up around the fortification. 
The place was named Jebus. About a mile 
distant the village of Salem was growing up 
in the neighborhood of Mount Moriah. Aft- 
er a long time these two towns met in the 
Tyropcean Valley. Then the city was called 
Jebussalem. But forasmuch as the human 
tongue is fonder of liquids than it is of oth- 



REMINISCENCES. 147 

er consonants, the people finally said Jerusa- 
lem. It was never a large place, and never 
can be. The little circular valley, scooped 
out on the tiptop of the mountains of Judea, 
affords room for about fifty thousand people. 
The additions to the city of London in one 
year would fill two such valleys. The walls 
of Jerusalem are only two miles and a quar- 
ter in circumference. 

My last excursion in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of the Holy City was to the top of 
the Mount of Olives. After crossing the 
brook Kedron, and passing by the Garden of 
Gethsemane, I dismounted. I had become 
a pilgrim sure enough. I could not consent 
to ride my donkey up the identical way along 
which my divine Master had always traveled 
on foot. On top of the mount I was con- 
ducted to the traditional spot from which 
Christ ascended to heaven. It is marked by 
a great, flat, hewn stone. On this I stood 
where, with a field glass, I could have 
counted all the noticeable buildings in the 
city. I thought of "twenty-seven sieges, 
seventeen captures, and seven demolitions" 



148 REMINISCENCES. 

through which the place has passed, accord- 
ing to history. 

But to the ascension. Let Luke speak: 
"And he led them out until they were over 
against Bethany; and he lifted up his hands 
and blessed them. And it came to pass, 
while he blessed them, he parted from them, 
and was carried up into heaven. And they 
worshiped him, and they returned to Jeru- 
salem with great joy; and were continually 
in the temple, blessing God." Again Luke 
says: "And when he had said these things, 
as they w T ere looking, he was taken up; and 
a cloud received him out of their sight. 
And while they were looking steadfastly 
into heaven as he went, behold, two men 
stood by them in white apparel; which also 
said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye look- 
ing into heaven? this Jesus, which was re- 
ceived up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye beheld him going 
into heaven." Here I shut the Book and 
clasped the clasp. From this spot my Lord 
ascended through the deep blue sky to the 
home of God. Worlds that never heard the 









WM 







mmm 



mm 






ill ! lH;!|i:j'i , !i PS 



cM 



lil h'lii ; ; ! !i' ,: P 



- ; : ■,;.■;■> 













REMINISCENCES. 149 

story of redeeming love might have stood 
still and gazed upon the splendid pageant on 
its shining way. 

I advise all intelligent and educated peo- 
ple who are religiously disposed to visit 
Palestine. Take the Bible as your guide- 
book, and your faith will be confirmed. It 
is a Mohammedan country, but all Chris- 
tian sects are freely tolerated. The Mosque 
of Omar is only a short distance from the 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I was 
pleased to notice that the last rays of the 
setting sun shone upon the gilded cross of 
the Christian Church. I also advise illiter- 
ate and skeptical people to stay away from 
the Holy Land. They will learn nothing 
beyond the fact that it is a land of ruins, 
and that the scenery around Jerusalem is 
the saddest and dreariest they ever saw. 
The mode of travel is abominable everv- 
where. Society people had better attend 
the Paris Exposition. 



XXV. 

I have approached the holy city of the 
Catholics from every point of the compass. 
The same scenes present themselves. Ruins I 
ruins! You see and almost hear the work 
of destruction going on around you. Aque- 
ducts, baths, columns, and triumphal arches; 
palaces, temples, fountains, and basilicas; 
the Forum, the Colosseum, and other gigan- 
tic structures are either in utter dilapida- 
tion or decaying by the inch. 

The country around the holy city is 
slightly undulating; but the seven hills on 
which the city is built are distinctly out- 
lined. In one half-day's drive you learn 
the situation and name of each hill. 

Globe trotters are in the habit of putting 

a characteristic adjective before the names 

of remarkable rivers: the mysterious JSTile, 

the sacred Jordan, the blue Danube, the 

castellated Rhine, the yellow Tiber. The 

Tiber runs through the city of Rome. It is 
(150) 



REMINISCENCES. 151 

certainly the muddiest and yellowest little 
stream one ever saw. 

Since the unification of all Italy by such 
men as Mazzini, Cavour, and Victor Im- 
manuel; and since the royal family are in 
residence on the Quirinal Hill, modern Rome 
has been growing with great rapidity. Rows 
of business houses and dwellings remind 
one of Kansas City a few years ago. Roma 
la superba will be an appropriate designa- 
tion before the twentieth century closes. 

The Eternal City has been a center of 
world-wide influence for more than two 
thousand years. Up to the fifth century 
after Christ all the civilized world felt the 
influence of its laws and government and 
military science. Since the opening of the 
seventh century the largest body of Chris- 
tians on earth has been governed by the pa- 
pal court. 

The two hundredth and fifty-ninth suc- 
cessor of St. Peter lives in the largest and 
most richly furnished palace on earth. I 
quote a paragraph from a celebrated travel- 
er and writer: "Again and again I strolled 



152 REMINISCENCES. 

through the immense halls of the Vatican, 
and can only say that it is a forest of stat- 
uary, and ought to be divided among the 
world. But what shall I say of the Vatican 
itself? How shall I describe it? I can 
only say that it is more than one thousand 
feet long and eight hundred feet wide; that it 
contains eight grand staircases, two hundred 
smaller ones, twenty courts, four thousand 
four hundred and twenty-two apartments, 
and a library no one knows how large. One 
room in it measures three hundred and 
eighteen yards." * 

The haughty Babylonian, the bearlike Per- 
sian, the quick-paced Grecian, and the eagle- 
eyed Roman Empires have passed away, but 
the holy city still rests upon her seven 
hills, and attracts pilgrims from every quar- 
ter of the earth to enjoy the ceremonies of 
Holy Week. Every hotel and pension and 
restaurant and cafe is packed, and the re- 
sources of Christian hospitality are exhaust- 
ed. We began wiring for rooms before we 
quit the shores of France. 

* " Twenty Thousand Miles." 



REMINISCENCES. 153 

The center of attraction is St. Peter's 
Church. The darkness of every evening 
finds thousands and tens of thousands in the 
vast building. How large is it? "I will 
not give you feet and inches," says an old 
writer, " but say that if Trinity Church in 
Xew York is finished on the plan with which 
it was commenced, you could pile about 
twelve of them into St. Peters, and have con- 
siderable room left for walking about. Thirty 
or forty common churches could be stowed 
away in it without much trouble. But this 
is nothing — the marble, the statuary, the 
costly tombs, the architecture, are inde- 
scribable. It seems as if Art had fallen in 
love with her own creation, and in the en- 
thusiasm of her passion had thrown away all 
her wealth upon it." 

The most interesting performance during 
Holy Week is the chanting of the Miserere. 
This piece of music is sung only once a 
year, on the night of Good Friday. I have 
heard it twice. It is said that an Emperor 
of Austria once wrote to the pope request- 
ing a copy, that he might have it sung in 



154 REMINISCENCES. 

his own cathedral. The effect was so incon- 
sequential that he wrote to his holiness, in- 
timating that a spurious copy had been sent 
him. The pope replied that a true copy had 
been sent to his imperial majesty , but that 
the scenery and the circumstances and the 
Italian voices had been subtracted from it. 

I have spent nearly five months in Italy. 
The people are the leading singers of the 
human race. The Germans and French can 
compose, but the Italians can sing. Let us 
suppose that you have been up the Nile, 
over in Syria, up to Constantinople, and, by 
way of Athens, across to Naples. Instant- 
ly you are charmed with music once more. 
It floats in among the six-o'clock diners; it 
attends you to the fashionable public square; 
the little boats over to beautiful Capri have 
two bands each; the bathers out in the water 
swim by music; you actually go to sleep in 
your hotel listening to the songs and instru- 
ments of the lazzaroni sitting upon the curb- 
stones. The Italian has an abundance of 
time. The most popular saying on the pen- 
insula is dolcefar niente. 



JUL 1901 



X 



